Come Back To Me
by quail58
Summary: Sesshomaru has lasted 500 years to see the reincarnation of Rin, only she doesn't know who she was and the world doesn't know that demons still exist.
1. Hello

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Inuyasha manga or anime.

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A young woman of 25 arrived at the shrine of the maiden Rin, who is believed to have died 500 years prior. Rin was dressed in a furisode of bright blue with cherry blossoms adorning the design. Her obi was of a pink that matched the color of the cherry blossoms. A small section of her hair was tied up in a bun and the left was left to tumble down her back. As she walked her geta clicked against the pavement.

Once inside the shrine she knelt down and said her prayers to the maiden Rin. As she stood up and turned around she saw a man sitting on a nearby bench. His hair was black, a color that appeared to be wrong for him even if nearly everyone she ever saw had black hair, and his eyes were the same shade of brown as nearly everyone elses' but didn't seem right on him either. His haori was white with red trim borders along the edges of his sleeves and his neckline. There were some polygonic patterns upon the red borders outlined in red and white. His haori was tied by a sash of blue and yellow material. She couldn't help but also think that he looked as if he belonged more in the past with some large changes than he looked as if he had been born only 30 years earlier.

He seemed to be staring at her with a sort of curiosity, which made her blush. Never before had she attracted this much attention from any man she had never seen before. Sure, every now and then she would notice men checking her out, but she was so shy she always passed it off. "Excuse me," his bass voice rang out in the empty shrine.

"Yes, can I help you?" She stood at the entrance of the shrine and looked down the bench at where he sat 5 feet away, but she tried to avoid any eye contact with him as it only made her blush.

"Has anyone told you that you look like the maiden this shrine was made for?" Sesshomaru was enraptured at the thought of this being the reincarnation of the young woman he had rescued over 5 centuries past.

"Actually, yes." She smiled brightly at him as she said, "That's one of the reasons why my parents named me Rin."

"That is very interesting." He pat the bench next to his left side, the side closest to her, and offered her the chance to sit down, "Do you have the time to sit and talk?"

"Actually, I do have to get to work in an hour and a half. It's my first day," she said pointing towards the open doorway of the pavilion.

"Where do you work?" he asked as he leaned forward and looked in front of him pretending to not be as curious as he was.

"Taiyouki Industries."

He leaned back against the wall of the shrine and said, "I know the CEO. If you stay I will let him know that you were talking to me." He grinned slightly understanding that she did not know that he was the CEO of Taiyouki Industries. His company was the only company in all of Japan that employed demons, half-demons, and their human mates. As the Lord of the Western Lands, it was his duty to protect the decreasing number of his kind by giving them jobs and hiding them from the rest of the world. He even made precautions not to hire humans, but it seemed that someone, most likely Inuyasha, had decided to hire Rin against the policies.

Her face lit up further as she asked him, "Would you really?"

"I would." She sat down next to him but made sure to put enough space between them so that an entire person could comfortably sit between them. She had just met him, but it seemed that she was already very much attracted to him. "Why else did your parents decide to call you Rin?"

Her irises of her eyes moved to the corners as she recalled her memories. "The first time they met was at this shrine. They said it was like love at first sight."

"Perhaps it was on purpose they met here since you could very well be her reincarnation," he said pointing at the statue of the maiden to whom the shrine was built for.

"I don't know if I believe in reincarnation. It seems too...strange." She gave a funny face as she stated that information. It was rather funny that he had mentioned reincarnation since the woman who had hired her suggested that she was a reincarnation of the maiden at whose shrine she was now visiting. The woman had even offered to hypnotize her to unlock the memories of the woman she was reincarnated from.

"Do you know the story of the maiden Rin?" he asked her thoughtfully.

"Does anyone? I don't think I can find anything on her or why she had a shrine built to her. My parents told me that they had heard from the shrine priestess that this shrine was built because whoever had taken the time to bury her wanted the whole world to know that she existed and deserved a great deal of honor. Yet that's all they know about her."

"If you are willing to listen, I can tell you the story about her." He allowed her to see his rare smile cross his face. If anyone else had been there he wouldn't have allowed her this luxury.

"Would you please?" Her face was so overjoyed at the thought of getting to hear the story that he just couldn't help but tell her.

He looked forward again at the space in front of him as he recalled the story of his Rin. He laid out for her the story of how Sesshomaru came to find Rin and to save her with the Tenseiga. Then he continued on to tell her what happened to himself and Rin after Naraku died:

"After Naraku died Sesshomaru sent Rin back to his palace to study with the best demon tutors while he continued traveling about his lands. Rin grew up to be a beautiful woman who was loved by many demons and humans, and she was smarter than most demons. When he finally returned the castle she was 18, past the marrying age for human women, which made him feel responsible for her well-being for the rest of her life. What he hadn't planned on was falling in love with her, only he was not willing to admit his love because he thought that being in love with her would cause others to think that he had gone weak, just as they thought his father had gone weak by taking a human as his mate.

"Sesshomaru started pushing her away, but finally he felt that he could no longer hide his feelings. He had decided on her 25th birthday to reveal his feelings to her, but she collapsed before he was able to do so. She died that night due to a human disease that was unpreventable. This left Lord Sesshomaru devastated, so he decided to commission a statute of her to be built over her grave so that all the world would know that his love was buried there and bring her the honor he should have given her a long time ago."

"Wow. What a sad story. Poor Lord Sesshomaru." The woman next to him was much like his Rin of long ago in that she deeply cared for everyone.

He stated matter-of-factly, "It is said that Lord Sesshomaru comes by the shrine every year on the anniversary of her death to bring her honor."

"But demons don't exist today." At this he said nothing more.


	2. The Announcement

Sesshomaru slammed the doors to Inuyasha's office open only 20 minutes later. "What in the hell were you thinking hiring a human?" he shouted at the not surprised half-demon sitting in front of him.

Inuyasha leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind the back of his head. "I guess you just read your memo." He smirked at his older half-brother knowing full well who the human was.

Sesshomaru's mind sputtered for a moment not realizing that Inuyasha had sent out a memo earlier since he hadn't been to his desk yet. He did not let his surprise show and quickly recovered. "I haven't been to my desk yet."

"Then you must have found out from Jaken then. Figures that good for nothing imp would have said something," he muttered.

"No, I met her at the shrine," Sesshomaru spouted. Now was Inuyasha's turn to be surprised and he fell backwards out of his chair and crashed onto the floor. The noise startled Kagome who was on her way into his office so she ran in to see if the brothers had started physically fitting in Inuyasha's office again to only find them verbally sparing.

Inuyasha picked himself up trying to regain his composure. He straightened his tie and held out his hand to motion to Kagome that he was fine. Kagome responded for him by saying, "I guess that spoils our surprise."

Sesshomaru turned his head to glare at her, a growl rumbling deep in his chest. "You should both be glad I gave you good jobs and protect you. Instead you ignore policies that were put into place to protect all of the demons and half-demons here. She could be the end of all of this if she finds out."

Kagome tried to hold back a laugh knowing full well what she was doing. She was quite certain that Sesshomaru's behavior was more of a surprised reaction than of his true feelings. They had seen too much of Sesshomaru over the centuries not understand what others could not about him.

After the jewel had been put back together after Naraku's destruction, Inuyasha had given it to Kagome so that she could make the wish. Inuyasha had known full well that only Kagome, the keeper of the Shikon no Tama, would be the only person to make a wish on it that would benefit the most people, and he had been right because she decided to wish that all humans that mated with demons or half-demons were immune to human illnesses and quicker aging process so that they could only die by the death of their mate or a brutal act upon themselves. This allowed her to age at Inuyasha's rate so that they could survive the centuries together instead of apart. More importantly, though, it allowed this to happen for more than just her.

When Sesshomaru had decided to take Rin as his mate he had called Inuyasha and Kagome to be there to witness the bonding ceremony just as they had done when they had become mates. The only problem was that when he was about to ask Rin she fell suddenly ill. Sesshomaru need not beg Kagome, but it was heavy in his voice and his movements that he wanted her to help his love recover. Instead she could do nothing and had been there at Rin's side up through her last minutes.

They had not truly understood until later that Sesshomaru had not actually given Rin any indication of his feelings towards her until he locked them all out of Rin's room for several days only to emerge only to bury the girl. Sesshomaru had tried to pretend that he was getting along fine without her, but he never was the same after her death, even 5 centuries later. That was why she was so bent on getting the reincarnated Rin's memories of her past life back so that the couple could be together now.

"You need to speak with my mate," Inuyasha whined putting the blame fully on Kagome. "She was the one who hired her."

"Oh thanks, Inuyasha," Kagome said sarcastically. "You certainly weren't objecting while you were sitting right next to me." They started arguing about whose fault it for the next minute until Sesshomaru lost his temper and both of Sesshomaru's hands hit both of them upside the back of their heads. Kagome groaned in pain louder as she held her hands over her head, and Inuyasha tried to start a fist fight with Sesshomaru who just wasn't interested and just held his hand up to blocks the pathetic blows.

"I have warned both of you about the policies in this office, and unless she remembers who she was or she mates with another demon, she is not to work here."

"It's too late now," Kagome said coming out of the fog of pain that was now settling into a dulling headache. "She's probably in the office right now, and we can't reasonably find something in a couple of seconds to give as a reason for firing her. Besides, you should be happy that she'll be close by again."

Sesshomaru turned his back on them and strode to the door only looking back over his right shoulder slightly to where Kagome was to remark, "She is a human, and you will both do your best not to reveal to her that demons still exist. Do you understand me?" He did not give her a chance to answer as he slammed the door behind himself.

Once inside his office he threw his briefcase onto his desk scattering a few papers about and collapsed into his desk chair. He could not get a moment of silence because he was immediately bombarded by Jaken and his many questions. Rin's appearance in his office was now a large issue for Jaken since he was the only demon in the company who could not be hidden due to his small size. He wasn't even allowed out of the building and lived within his office next to Sesshomaru's larger one.

"Jaken," he called out to the rambling demon silencing his rantings about Sesshomaru arriving late. "I am quite sure you are aware of the new employee Inuyasha and Kagome hired." Jaken gulped audibly confirming his positive response. Sesshomaru then continued on, "You are not to go far from this office or yours during normal working hours, and I will not be responsible for your demise should you allow yourself to be discovered. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, mi'lord," Jaken stuttered out.

"That is all," Sesshomaru stated as he turned his chair around to look at the corner windows. He gestured with his right hand for Jaken to dismiss himself. The door opened and closed and a new scent wafted into the room. "What do you want, Kouga?" he questioned the wolf demon now standing in his office.

"I am supposing that this human will result in all of us having to wear our concealment clothing," he commented distastefully. One of the greatest advantages to the demons to work at Taiyouki was being able to wear clothing inside of the building that did not hold their concealment spells.

A witch had found some centuries before that allowed them to put concealment spell slips within their clothes allowing them to take on a number of traits of their choosing when they were wearing the clothes. This had allowed him to change his hair color to black, his eye color to brown, and hid his many demon traits.

The concealment spells were so effective they could make a demon appear to age over time until they reached a look that suggested in human terms would lead to their "retirement". Once the demon retired they would change their concealment spells to change their appearance completely, and they could once again have their job back under a different identity. It allowed them to appear human in a world that was now almost entirely overrun by humans.

"You have Inuyasha and Kagome to thank for that," Sesshomaru stated blandly not even turning to face Kouga.

"Why in the hell would dog-face hire a human?" Kouga said with venom. While Kouga had gotten over his love for Kagome, he still could not get along with Inuyasha since their egos consistently collided.

"She is Rin's reincarnation," Sesshomaru informed him. This time he turned around and looked at the wolf demon to see the shocked look that now crossed his face. "I am working on a way to get her out of here."

Kouga chuckled slightly and flopped on the couch in the opposite corner of the room from Sesshomaru's desk. "So Rin's returned after all of these years. I guess you will finally be taking a mate."

"I will do no such thing," Sesshomaru growled as he leaned forward in his chair, his eyes would likely be glowing red if the concealment spell had not made them brown. "I will not take a human mate. I almost did once and was lucky that nature took her away from me. Now is not the time, not when our kind are dying out. I will mate with a demon and produce many demon heirs." His voice was cold and calculating as he spoke. "I will not also allow that human to reveal our secret to the world. We are too few in number to fight them, and I refuse to become some lab rat."

"Fine," Kouga said throwing his hands up in the air to show his surrender to Sesshomaru's logic. "Do as you see fit." He knew better to get in a fight with the dog demon sitting in front of him, not when he had a litter of cubs at home with his mate, Ayame. Knowing what was best for him, he got up and walked out of the room silently and swiftly.

Sesshomaru leaned back in his chair and remembered all too well everything about Rin from earlier that morning. Even after centuries he was still madly in love with her.


	3. We Meet Again

Sesshomaru managed avoid Rin throughout the work week, and Rin remained ignorant of Sesshomaru being the CEO of the company she worked for. They would not see each other again until Sunday.

Sesshomaru as usual was wide awake at 5 A.M. And something inside of him was yearning. He knew not what it was yearning for, but he knew it was yearning for him to find something. Getting dressed in a button down white shirt and tan pants, he walked the city streets feeling a pulsing within his veins as he neared some unknown target. Eventually he found himself at the shrine of his beloved Rin, but Rin's reincarnation's scent was no where to be found. Noting that not even the shrine priestess was there he sat down on the bench and contemplated what it could have been that had brought him here.

Rin awoke early that morning from a nightmare that had plagued her frequently since she was a young child. She changed into her favorite kimono and geta and walked down to the shrine as was her custom every Sunday morning. Upon reaching the temple she would pray to the maiden Rin and then enjoy the sound of the birds chirping and the sights of the flowers in bloom in the spring and summer.

Her trip to the shrine on Monday had been a special trip since she had wished to pray to the maiden for success in her first day on the job before heading to work. All in all, she was glad she had made the trip to hear the story of the maiden who was buried beneath the statute. "Oh, Rin, when are you going to admit that that's not the only reason you were happy?" she questioned herself as she climbed up the stairs to the shrine. "You thought he was cute, admit it."

Her voice floating in the wind caught the attention of the demon sitting inside and snapped his attention back to the present. Suddenly it seemed that the pulse in his blood was throbbing at an ever increasing rate. Was he meant to come and see Rin again, and was he imagining it in order to put off the blame of his true intentions to run into Rin again? His eyes never left her from the moment her figure fell into view and he was quite certain that she was unaware of his presence since this time he was sitting deep into the corner of the room to her right and behind her.

He watch as Rin bowed down, eyes closed and lips moving. She would stay in that position for several minutes as she silently spilled out a prayer to see the stranger from before in the shrine again. It was quite a shock then when she heard his voice call out to her as she stood back up. "Are you a frequent visitor?" he asked her nonchalantly.

Rin squeaked at the realization that she was first of all not alone and second of all with the man who had occupied her thoughts for most of the week. She was quite certain he was aware of the red tinge that now stained her cheeks as the blood rose to them. It took her what seemed like several minutes but was only a few seconds to respond with, "I come every Sunday morning." She paused for a second wondering if she could say more to him. Deciding that she needed to know she asked him, "Do you come often because I don't remember seeing you before Monday?"

"No," he answered truthfully. "I normally come only once a year. It was a tradition set for me a long time ago. I guess you could say that something was drawing me here today." He noticed how her eyes took in the sight of him dressed in modern day clothing and it made him feel comfort knowing that she was just like the maiden he had buried 500 years before in that she was easily attracted to him. "Do you always come so early in the morning?" he asked her after a couple of minutes of allowing her to take in his words.

His words brought her out of her revelry. "No. I just had a bad dream last night. A nightmare I've had since I can remember." She sort of plopped on the bench not remembering her manners and continuing on as if he was a good friend instead of a stranger she had met briefly once before, "I usually had it once a week, but since I heard that story from you about the maiden Rin it has plagued me every night this week." She looked up at him and blushed furiously before apologizing for saying too much.

Sesshomaru sat there silently listening to her as she spoke in deep contemplation of every next word to come out of her mouth. "If I may be so bold, what was the dream about?"

She closed her eyes to recall everything that happened in the dream. "I am a young child in Feudal Japan. I am alone as I walk into a hut where a hideous man is rummaging through the things that once belonged to my now deceased parents. He asks me if the hut belongs to me and I nod in confirmation since I cannot speak. The sound of wolves barking in the distance causes the man to worry and run. I watch him as the wolves close in on him in the river.

"Then this wolf demon starts talking to the man and taking a shard of what looks like a pink jewel from the man. The man thanks the demon for not killing him as the demon walks away, but the demon turns around and kills him citing that he had not remembered until the man had said something. The demon then tells the wolves to feed on the villagers to their delight. A number of wolves then started chasing me, so I ran out into the woods towards the faded memory of a man walking away from me. He had the most beautiful silver hair that reached down near his feet and he had a fluffy thing thrown over his shoulder. I guess I was running to him in hopes that he would save me, but the wolves kill me before I can reach him." She let out a sigh as she relived the memories over again.

Sesshomaru sat there silently understanding that she was having dreams of her first death, of her soul's first bodily death. He wondered to himself if she held any more memories of her soul's past? It then dawned on him that she likely didn't remember more since she had not recognized his face since it was the same save for his markings and his change in hair and eye color.

"I suppose there is some meaning to the dream," she spoke after several minutes of silence between them.

He assured her in hopes of throwing her off of any other path of thinking, "It probably does mean so. Have you ever talking to a psychiatrist about this?"

"No," she answered honestly. "I guess I've always been afraid to. It just sounds so silly to me." She giggled quietly to herself as she realized how silly of an idea it was to tell this stranger something she wouldn't even tell a psychiatrist. 'He must think I really am crazy,' she thought to herself.

Sesshomaru watched as the expressions crossed over Rin's face as she sat in silent contemplation. Yes, more than 5 centuries had not stopped him from being in love with Rin's soul. "Would you like to join me for breakfast?" he asked her out of the blue.

Rin's cheeks turned red and she refused to look up at him. "I don't have a whole lot of money at the moment. I don't get paid for another 2 weeks." She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes watching his expressionless face.

"Allow me to provide you breakfast then," he offered her.

Rin's face turned a brighter red color upon realization that he was possibly as interested in her as she was in him. "I don't even know your name," she confessed to him.

"My name is Sesshomaru."

Rin's smile grew into a strange grin. "Like the name of the demon the maiden Rin followed. Is that why you come up here? You were named after the demon she followed?"

Sesshomaru's mind reeled as he carefully chose his words, "I guess you could say that my name has something to do with my fascination of this place, but I was not named after him." That seemed to be a sufficient enough answer since she stood up eagerly signaling that she was accepting his proposal.

She watched as his tall frame loomed over hers, yet she was not intimated by his size. "Oh, wait," Rin cried out remembering what she was dressed in. "I need to change before we go out somewhere. I don't normally walk around in a kimono."

"How far do you live from here?" he asked her patiently.

"Only a couple of blocks," she said pointing in the direction of her apartment building. "It should not take me long. Is there somewhere I can meet you at?"

Sesshomaru answered her, "I will follow you and call ahead. I'll have them make something special for us." He motioned for her to start walking in front of him and followed behind her slowly. They walked to her apartment and as she changed into a slimming red sweater and pair of jeans he called ahead and announced to his cook that he was bringing a human home and to make her breakfast.

As they were leaving Rin grabbed a light black coat and her purse and followed Sesshomaru just as she had when she was a child. They walked into a residential area and Rin inquired of him, "Where are we going?"

"I thought we would have dinner at my house. My cook makes a world famous breakfast casserole."

"A cook? You have a cook?" she asked him as they walked up to the front of a mansion sized house. "May I ask what it is that you do for a living, if it's not too much to ask?"

He chuckled lightly at her question and answered her, "I am a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company."

"Oh," she said in a rather disappointed tone. He stopped to look at her as he saw how her face dropped. What was it that he had said that would make her act so disappointed in him. Normally people were flocking about him trying to get in his favor upon realizing that he was wealthy, but of course he should have realized that Rin was different. "Maybe I should go home," she said surprising him.

"Have I said something to offend you."

Immediately she answered him abruptly, "No, I have more likely offended you." The expression on his face did not change so she figured that she would need to explain further, "I'm sure you have people constantly trying to take advantage of you because of your position, and I don't want you to think I'm doing the same."

Sesshomaru took hold of her chin with his right thumb and index finger to keep her looking up at him. "I find your attitude refreshing, but that does not mean that I don't want you here with me." He looked at her eyes watching as they washed over with relief before looking down at the lips he had so long wished to kiss. He leaned in slightly but stopped when his nose filled with the scent of her nervousness, so he slowly let her go and turned to walk into his house.

'Did he almost kiss me?' she asked herself. It had surprised her how close he had gotten to her, and they barely knew each other. Did he find her attractive, or was he a womanizer? But then he had let her go before he had gone too far. She wondered if Kagome knew Sesshomaru, so she thought she would find a way to ask him at some point during their breakfast.

She would not have to wait long because shortly after being served he asked her how her new job was working out. "It's good, considering it's still rather new to me," she admitted to him. "I have met quite a few amusing people, including Inuyasha and Kagome."

Sesshomaru noticed as she looked at him through the bangs handing in front of her eyes. He knew where she was going but would not allow anything to give way to this knowledge. "I am quite aware of the both of them. Inuyasha is the half-brother of the CEO."

"I did not know that," Rin honestly admitted.

"They don't get along." Rin tried not to laugh at the face that Sesshomaru made when he informed her of that. He then spent the rest of the breakfast telling tales about Inuyasha's foolish pursuits within the last 20 years since he started working for the company, and Rin laughed heartily at all of it.

As the clock struck ten they decided to go their separate ways, Sesshomaru citing that he needed to work on important paperwork piling up on his desk.


	4. A Chat

Rin returned to work eagerly on Monday and sought out Kagome as soon as possible. Thankfully Kagome was alone in her office instead of arguing with her husband in his office like Rin usually found her doing. Kagome greeted her and bade her to sit in one of the two chairs seats in front of the desk. "Is there anything I can help you with," Kagome asked, in Rin's opinion, all to eagerly.

Rin sat down slowly and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt as she asked, "Do you know Sesshomaru well?"

Kagome, who was drinking her cup of coffee, almost spit out the contents of her drink over the desk. "Have you seen him again?" she asked nervously. She put the cup back on the coaster on her desk and wiped her lips gently to soak up the moisture on them.

"Yesterday, at the shrine." Her voice was dreamy and she stared out in space just beyond Kagome instead of at Kagome. "He invited me over to for breakfast at his home, and we talked for hours. He's got some really funny stories about Inuyasha."

Kagome sat there unsure of what to say. Sesshomaru had not mentioned that he had seen Rin again, so she knew not what he had told Rin that was true and false. She was thankfully saved by the phone ringing. Pouncing on the phone she interrupted Rin from going any further. "Hello." Inuyasha was on the other side of the phone complaining about something that one of their sons had done that morning before the nanny came, but she didn't need Rin to know that the call could wait so she put Inuyasha on hold for a second. "Rin, do you mind if I take this call? Inuyasha is upset about the kids again."

"Sure," Rin answered her knowing full well Inuyasha's temperament and that they had 6 children together, an ungodly number of child in comparison to most of the couples in Japan. She left quietly hoping that she would get another chance to talk to Kagome again.

Kagome returned her attention again to the phone and told Inuyasha to stop complaining and then hung up on him without Inuyasha's permission leaving him even more upset. Before he had a chance to call her back she was calling Jaken's phone. "Jaken, get Sesshomaru on the phone with me right now."

"He's busy," was the reply. "Mi'lord doesn't have time for nobodies like you."

At that moment Kagome wished she was upstairs in front of Jaken so she could reach out and slap him across the face. "Tell him it's about Rin, and I won't take 'no' for an answer again," she shouted through the phone at him.

It would be a couple of minutes before Sesshomaru picked up, his deep voice saying, "What about Rin?" His voice wore its usual emotionless tone, but Kagome wondered if she hadn't detected some concern.

"She came to my office this morning." She said in an annoyed tone, "If you're going to pursue a relationship with her, you need to keep the rest of us up-to-date on what you have and have not told her."

Sesshomaru leaned back in his chair hoping to bate her into some sort of an argument. "My affairs are of no concern to you."

"They are my concern when the person comes to me to talk about you and I have no idea what kind of false persona you have set up for them." She was easily taking the bait and revealing something Sesshomaru was pleased to hear, that Rin was indeed curious about him. "So are you going to let me know, or do you want me to tell her everything?"

Kagome smiled in victory knowing that he would have no negative reply to her question. She heard him grunt before answering, "She is not to know that I am a demon."

"Okay, we're going to continue hiding this from her. Will you at least tell us when she knows the truth?"

Sesshomaru roared at her, "She will never know that I am a demon, do you understand me?"

"Okay," Kagome said sarcastically. "You don't need to yell at me though. I have to listen to your brother yell at me enough."

"Half-brothers," Sesshomaru corrected her. "She also believes that I am the friend of the CEO of the company."

Kagome almost fell of her chair laughing. "Do you want to explain that one?" she asked him gasping for breath before continuing her laughing fit.

"I don't want her coming up here often to see me. She is not to see Jaken." With that said he hung up the phone on her just as she had done with Inuyasha, was was not storming into her office.

Before he could say anything she told him to go away and to ask Rin to come instead. He didn't want to go until he found out that it was about Rin and Sesshomaru, so he wisely left her alone. Rin came back and closed the door behind her. "Well, as you can see I think I waste half of my day with my good for nothing husband," Kagome teased.

"At least you have someone to go home to," Rin admitted. "I don't have anything to go home to."

"Well, speaking of someone, what about Sesshomaru? Do you like him?" Kagome asked her eagerly.

Rin pretended to be a little put off by the statement, "I've only met him twice. I don't even know what his last name is or where he works."

"Oh, you don't know much at all about him, but do you like what you know about him so far?"

Rin tried not to sound like a child as she dreamily said while staring off in space, "He's wonderful. He's so nice to me, and we can talk for hours and never be tired of talking to each other. I really enjoy how he looks at me and..." She thought about the kiss they almost shared and remembered exactly why it was that she was going to ask Kagome about. "What can you tell me about his personality? How does he behave around other people?"

Kagome leaned back in her chair, a sour expression on her face, as she gave an exasperated sigh. "He's frustrating." She started counting off using her fingers, "He's inconsiderate of other people's feelings, he's proud, he hates people unlike him, he...he doesn't like Inuyasha and is therefore harsh with me." Her face dropped as she then started listing off his good features, "But he did get us our jobs, and I've seen him be very gentle with just one person."

"I guess you could say two people now," Rin giggled. "He's not at all harsh with me. I can't even believe what you say about him. But I was wondering if he's kind of a ladies' man." Kagome started laughing again heartily and this time did fall out of her chair but continued laughing as she laid on the floor. Rin got up and walked over to the other side of the desk to get a look at Kagome and then put her hands on her hips as she said, "I was being serious. I had been around him for only one hour all together when he tried to kiss me."

Kagome's laughing grew louder and she clutched at her sides to keep the pain from the heaving to get worse. Finally after about a few minutes of laughing she calmed down enough to grab at her chair, and with Rin's help, get seated again. "I'm sorry," she said still laughing but more slowly. "But I've only seen Sesshomaru with one woman ever, and he was afraid to tell her that he liked her. He was too late, and she left him before he could say it. He's had eyes for no one else since...except for you, I guess." She let out another giggle but stifled it.

"Do you really mean that?" Rin asked her enthusiastically. "Do you think he's over her?"

"He must be if he's with you," Kagome said calming Rin. "Don't worry. Just see how he reacts before you do or say anything."


	5. I Heard You Talked About Me

Rin glanced up at the clocked and realized there were only 15 minutes left to the work day. She sighed as she thought of how she was going to organize everything on her desk so that she knew exactly where to pick up when she got back to work tomorrow. Her thoughts were abruptly ended when her phone rang. She jumped out of her skin first all of because she had never heard her phone rung, but secondly because she didn't know that the previous owner of the desk had turned up the ringer very loudly to be rather rude to his co-workers.

Many of her co-workers stopped what they were doing and Rin felt the stares of a few people as they peeked around the corner of her cubicle to get a look at her. "Can someone tell me how to turn down the volume on the ringer?" she asked out loud.

The guy in the next cubicle, Ginta, assured her that he knew what he was doing and fiddled around with the phone until the person on the other line hung up. He apologized to her and then pressed the button a few times and assured her that it would be a more reasonable volume before returning back to his desk.

The phone rang again only a minute later and this time Rin grabbed it quickly rather ashamed that she had not answered it before asking for help with the volume. "Hello," she asked timidly.

She had not expected to hear the bass voice on the other side of the receiver. "Rin, this is Sesshomaru. I was thinking about you today." Rin's cheeks flushed a bright red and she was grateful that he was unable to see her at this moment. She had been sitting but decided at this moment that it was best if she sat down and busied herself with closing out the open windows on her computer to keep herself somewhat distracted from saying something that might end up being embarrassing. "You see, Kagome called me today."

"Oh?" She stopped her activity on the computer and instead started fiddling with her pen turning it about in her right hand as her left hand rapped on the desk.

"Yes, she said that she was rather surprised to find out from you yesterday that we knew each other," he lied to her. He was sitting in his car as he drove from the office to his home, his cell phone mounted on his center console, a ear piece attached to his ear. As he watched the traffic move at a crawling pace in front of him he listened intently to any noises from the other side of the phone that might give away what she was doing. "From what I understand, you enjoyed our breakfast the other day."

Rin's breath caught in her throat, which did not escape Sesshomaru's hearing, and she ceased fiddling with her pen. Regaining her composure she said, "I did. It's nice to be able to talk to someone for a long period of time about so many things." It had indeed been a long time since she had few friends in high school and college with which to converse with, at least one on one. Her parents had died early, and none of her foster parents had had time for her either.

"I must agree with you," he admitted quietly despite that fact that no one was around to hear his confession save for Rin. "I was hoping that perhaps we could get together again on Thursday night for dinner. I know that's only two days away, but I thought that perhaps you wouldn't be busy."

"I'm not busy," Rin said enthusiastically and then she came to her senses realizing that it almost sounded desperate to have his company. She slapped her forehead earning a 'whapping' sound that was audible to her co-workers, who were not heading to the elevator, and to the demon on the other side of the phone.

Thankfully he chuckled at her response and behavior allowing her a moment of relief. "Good, then I will pick you up from work when you get off," he offered her. She nodded her head to show that she was agreement with his offer but then realized that he could not see her so she grunted out a quick 'yes' that his demons ears were able to hear but a human ear would not have been able to. He bid her a goodnight and then pressed a button to end the call.

Sesshomaru's eyes focused on the car in front of him, but his mind was elsewhere. He had waited all day for this call, and now he felt like a silly high school girl waiting for the chance to call the boy she was in puppy love with. Somehow though he could not help it; Rin just had that type of power over him.

Rin, on the other hand, had folded her arms on the desk in front of her and was banging her forehead against them repeatedly. She had felt like such a fool on the phone that she hoped it would not drive him away. As the CEO of a company, he would not want to be seen with a 'silly girl', and if she wanted him to take her seriously, she would need to get a better hold on her emotions.

He picked her up the next evening at the front of her building. It was quite a bold move to pick her up in front of the building, but almost all of her co-workers were currently heading to their cars in the parking garage. She walked slowly to the car hoping not to any eagerness, but in doing so she walked a little slower than she normally did. He got out and opened the car door for her and closed it behind her before walking around to get back into the driver's seat.

Before they knew it, they were at his home and seated for another delicious meal prepared by his cook. "I do hope you enjoy fish," he said to her knowing full well that she had preferred fish in her previous life.

"I do like fish," she said reassuring him that she was just like her past self. "I guess it's an easy pick since most people like fish," she giggled but then closed her mouth immediately.

Sesshomaru sensed her resentment at acting so foolish in front of him, so to calm he said, "I do find that I enjoy talking to you since you are much unlike the rest of the people I see everyday. Most are intimidated by my position."

"But someone in your position has to be formal with people," she offered him.

He gave her a genuine smile again as he said to her, "Sometimes it is nice to let down the formalities and relax with someone." He was referring to a mate, but she missed his message. Instead she just nodded her head as she thought over his words and picked at her food eating it slowly. The following five minutes of silence was silently killing Sesshomaru inside so he finally asked her about her life before the previous week.

She told him about her parents dying when she was only 7 by some robbers who left her alone. From that point on she was shuffled between foster parents, none of which cared for her in the way most parents cared for their children. She worked her way through high school and college to pay for her schooling and was out of school only a week before getting the interview at his company.

He listened to her silently nodding his head every few minutes to let her know that he was still listening. She had lived a difficult life, which seemed consistent with her previous life, but she always seemed to get through everything with a cheerful attitude.

After dinner they retired to the living room where she impressed him with her piano playing He sat there watching her the whole night saying little but listening intently. It had been a long time since he was able to be with anyone like this allowing them to see him at his leisure, and he wished for it to return to him again. In the back of his mind he planned the next time he would "run" into her in hopes of spending some more time.


	6. A Day Together

The alarm clock started its hideous chime at 7 A.M. Rin's hand slammed on the snooze button and she wondered why it was that she had set her alarm clock for such an early time since it was Sunday. Then the thought hit her that it was Sunday.

She jumped out of bed and got showered and dressed in a sweater and a pair of jeans. She glanced at the weather on the TV quickly before grabbing a coat since it was now 50 degrees outside. The fall air blew across around the corners of the buildings sending her hair floating around her, but she didn't care if it tangled at this moment because she was too preoccupied with getting to the shrine in hopes of finding Sesshomaru there again.

To her disappointment she found herself alone in the shrine. She fell to her knees in defeat before the statute and prayed to the maiden to bring her the man her heart deeply desired. Little did she know but he was standing behind her until his shadow cast over her small figure.

She turned around to see him standing there with his hands in his pockets. He watched her as she gave him a gentle smile but her eyes gave way to the surprise and exuberance of seeing him. "I thought you would be here," his voice rang out throughout the shrine.

Rin looked down in hopes of hiding her blush and said to him, "I had wondered if you would be here today." The shakiness in her voice alerted him that she was trying hard to control her voice and movements. He took note of the fact that she was now dressed in her regular clothes instead of her kimono, which he took to mean that she was planning on seeing him there in hopes that they could spend more time together. She stood up and moved aside, her hands wringing in front of her around her waist level. "I don't mean to keep you from your prayers."

Sesshomaru looked at the statute and then back at her and said quietly so only she could hear him, "I didn't come to pray." His eyes bore into her as she understood his words fully. Her cheeks stained red again, and Sesshomaru thought about how much he enjoyed seeing them the color they were.

This had been unimaginable for him only a month ago, acting this way, but right now he cared little about what others would think of him. Perhaps it was his age; the long time alone may have started wearing down on him as he was starting to think about settling down now with someone for a long time. It was more likely due to the extreme joy that had been coursing through him at the thought of being with his Rin again after losing his chance 500 years ago.

Rin would not look up at him as she asked him, "What do you have planned for today?"

"I thought we might look at the zoo today." He was pleased to see her face light up from the joy of his suggestion. He placed his hand on her lower back supportively and gently while directing her towards the door with his other arm. She started walking with him at her left side.

The zoo was only a couple of blocks away, and they spent most of the day looking at the animals spending a great deal of time looking at each. Rin explained to him how she used to run away to the zoo to get away from her foster parents when she was younger.

As they sat down for lunch she finally got up the nerve to ask him, "What about your childhood and family?"

He stopped preparing his burger for consumption to look at her trying to put on a puzzled face. "What about them?" he asked almost dangerously.

"You never talk about them," she offered him before taking a bite of her chicken sandwich. One of the onions slipped out from under the bun and she slipped it back under the bun before continuing, "I was just wondering if you would tell me about your past."

He took a bite of his hamburger and chewed it slowly thinking over his story carefully. Finally he swallowed his food and said to her, "I really don't like to talk about my past. I didn't exactly have a good past myself." The look on her face showed her concern for him, but he could still see that she was desperately interested in knowing about it, after all she had shared her troubled past with him.

"My father left my mother when I was a teenager for another woman. He got her pregnant and then died while trying to save her and my half-brother from his greatest enemy. My mother was a cold woman who died recently, but I hadn't seen her in years." He watched her face grow more ashamed for asking him, but he reassured her, "You had every right to ask me, after all you have shared much with me." She gave him a weak smile signaling to him that she had heard him but still felt horrible.

She finished her sandwich and watched him as he ate his before she spoke again. "Was there at least something good in your past?" She was trying hard to cheer him up.

He remembered the joy he got from receiving the title of Lord of the Western Lands, but he could not explain that to her. More importantly though, he remembered the joy he had from the short time he had the first Rin within his presence. "I was in love once," he admitted to her.

Rin leaned back in her seat from her upright position and watched the people eating around them. "I believe Kagome mentioned that once. She said that the woman left you because you had not told her about your feelings for her."

He said to her in a slow pace, "She died from a rare disease, but I do regret not telling her about my love for her before she died." He looked at her again and the look he was giving her made her insides lurch from excitement. "I won't allow that to happen again, even if it could never work out." A tingle ran down Rin's spine as she hoped that he was talking about her.

They sat there for a few minutes unable to speak to each other before Sesshomaru asked if she was ready to continue on. They walked next to each other in the direction of the reptile house when she felt the fingers on her right hand brush against her open left palm. Rin stretched out her fingers to let his fingers entwine with hers. They walked throughout the zoo and back to her apartment holding hands most of the way.


	7. You Lied To Me

For the next couple of months they regularly saw each other at least a couple of times a week. Even though they did not exchange words, they often felt solace in just being within each other's presence.

The peace brought by Sesshomaru's entrance into her life was brought to an end when a disturbance shattered the normal hum of her daily routine. Being that she worked so close to Inuyasha's office she often heard the fights that often ensued between Inuyasha and nearly everyone else that worked under him or with him. Today's fight was not the usual volume and not with the usual people. This person was much more angry and had a much deeper voice. It also did not help that there was furniture being thrown around as if they were physically fighting with other, or so it sounded.

Rin peeked around the corner of her cubicle wall and asked Ginta, "Hey, Ginta, is everything okay in Inuyasha's office?"

He looked up from his work with a quizzical look on his face and then laughed at her. "I don't suppose you've ever heard the brothers fighting before." He rubbed the back of his head and smiled at her.

"I have heard that they don't get along," she commented.

He pointed to the two drawer file cabinet next to the opening of his cubicle in reference to her sitting there. She sat on the edge of the file cabinet and listened intently to what he would have to say. "That's only half of it. Sesshomaru likes to keep a tight reign on the company, so when Inuyasha makes a mistake he comes down on Inuyasha much more than anyone else in the company. Sometimes Hikaku and I wonder why Sesshomaru even made Inuyasha so high up in the company."

Rin had stopped listening to what he had said once she heard him mention Sesshomaru's name. "I don't think I've heard much about this Sesshomaru," she said once she realized he had finished talking a minute before. "What is he like? What does he look like?" she said almost too anxiously. She prayed that Ginta didn't think too suspiciously of her.

He laughed as he talked about Sesshomaru. "He's Inuyasha's brother and the CEO of the company. As you can tell, he's not the nicest person in the world. Most people are afraid to make him upset because he'll seriously hurt you, and he doesn't tolerate anything but complete seriousness. He's got quite an ego too. He seems to think he's much better than anyone else."

He stood up and motioned for Rin to follow him and he walked to Hikaku's cubicle and started talking to him about how Rin had yet to see Sesshomaru. Thankfully for Rin, Hikaku's cubicle was right across the hallway from Inuyasha's office. As she looked into the office she could see Inuyasha throwing punches at someone who was hidden behind the door and then getting hit in the face several times. "He's never going to beat Sesshomaru without that sword of his," Hikaku commented and Ginta agreed with him.

Rin was too busy waiting to see if this Sesshomaru was the same Sesshomaru she had started falling in love with. Her heart broke the second that she caught sight of Sesshomaru's face in the window. He had lied to her, and he actually had the audacity to think she wouldn't figure it out! In a huff she left for Kagome's office leaving Ginta and Hikaku confused. She threw Kagome's door and demanded, "I need to leave now!"

Kagome cocked her head to the side and looked at Rin sadly as if knowing what had happened, but Rin was not about to talk it over with her. After a couple of seconds of thinking Kagome told her softly, "You can take the rest of the day off, and I'll see you on Monday."

Rin marched out of the office and fled by foot back to her apartment and threw herself on her bed sobbing. 'He lied to me!' she thought over and over again. She had thought they were becoming closer, that perhaps he was falling in love with her just as much as she was falling in love with him, but she had been seriously wrong. He just wanted to use her and for what? What did he get out of their time together? Was he hoping to bed her later when he thought she would easily give herself up to him? Why would he lie about being her boss?

The night melted into day, but Rin did not wish to get out of bed unless necessary. She ate little and slept much between fits of sobbing. Finally Sunday came around, but for the first time in her life she did not want to go to the shrine. As noon approached she heard the sound of banging on her door and a person calling out her name. She laid in bed hoping that he would go away.

Sesshomaru had not heard a word from Rin over the past day and a half, and when she didn't show up at the shrine he worried that something was wrong with her. He hastily head for her apartment and could smell her presence still within the apartment. Over the years he had picked up the useful skill of lock-picking and got into her apartment hoping to find her still in decent condition.

What he found was Rin lying in her bed, tears falling from her face. The sight cut him to the heart, and he sank to his knees on the floor in front of her. When he reached out to wipe away a tear her hand shot out from under the covers and grabbed onto his finger. "Don't touch me," she said, her voice forceful. Never before had she talked to anyone before in such a harsh tone.

Sesshomaru's other hand reached out and covered her hand grasping his finger. "Rin, I can't imagine what it was that I have done to upset you so, but I am truly sorry. The last thing I want is to hurt you." His words were honest and he hoped that in his eyes she could see his sincerity.

As Rin looked at him she could see the open emotions in his eyes. Such raw emotions were flooding through him she found it exhausting. "You did hurt me though," she confessed in a saddened tone. "Why did you lie to me? Why didn't you tell me that you were my boss?"

Sesshomaru tried hard to not let his relief show in his face at hearing her question. She still had no idea about his deeper secrets. "I was afraid you wouldn't talk to me if you knew the truth," he confessed to her. It was the truth, but it wasn't the full truth. He had also intended to keep her away from his office to keep Jaken a secret.

Rin nodded her head in understanding and watched as Sesshomaru leaned forward to kiss her forehead ever so lightly. He got up almost immediately and insisted that she also do so. While she showered and dressed herself in more suitable clothing he was making her lunch. He planted himself in the middle of her couch and put the plate of food next to him waiting for her to join him.

After drying off her hair as best as possible, she sank into the couch next to him with her plate of food in her lap and her chopsticks hovered in the hair. "Aren't you going to eat something?" she questioned him.

"I have eaten already," he lied to her. He actually didn't care to eat human food and only did so as of lately to not reveal his true origins to her. She leaned against him as she ate and he said not a word. Instead his mind was deep in thought. Rin had reacted so horribly to the smaller lie of the bunch, and he worried about what would happen if she were to find out he was a demon, and not just any demon but the demon that had let her die all those years ago. If only Kagome had made her wish on the Shikon no Tama sooner he would have made Rin his mate and she would still be by his side instead of her reincarnation he couldn't have!

His throughts were interrupted by Rin setting her plate on the coffee table in front of them and took a sip of her tea. She then leaned back on the couch and curled up next to him while leaning up against his right side. He lifted up his arm and put it around her smaller shoulders and pulled her closer to him. They would sit like this for a few minutes before his sad voice said the words that would always haunt her, "Rin, I have not told you the complete truth about me because my secrets would hurt you. Since there are so many more secrets that I cannot share with you, I think it's best that we no longer spend any time together."

The words swam through Rin's mind as she snuggled closer to him in hopes that it would keep him on that couch longer. "I don't understand, really, what kinds of harmful secrets you could be keeping from me," she confessed to him. He said not a word but "humph'ed" and looked down at her memorizing her smell again. "But I guess I probably never will. I will miss you though, greatly." She stood up and started to walk away when he pulled her to him and planted a kiss on her lips.

The kiss was gentle, but both of the lovers felt the need for the other. As they parted for a breath he knew that he had to get away from her before he did anything more. He stood up and walked out of the apartment saying not one more word. Rin felt herself collapse on the couch and cry again for the fifth time that day.


	8. Regaining The Truth

The next morning as Kagome opened up her work email she found an email from Rin with the subject line of "Personal – Please Help Me". She was curious so she opened it to find the following:

Sesshomaru told me that he can't be with me anymore because he has to hide something from me. Do you know what he could be hiding?

Kagome smiled and replied back, _I do know. Please see me during lunch today._ She pushed send and not even a minute later there was another email from Rin stating that she would be in Kagome's office as soon as she warmed up her meal.

At noon Rin put her work aside and walked to the break room on their floor. She did not have to dig far since most of the people in her office did not bring food to work and opted instead to go out for lunch. She microwaved her meal and grabbed a fork before entering Kagome's office to find her finishing her meal. "I'm sorry," Kagome apologized, "But I start my lunch about 30 minutes earlier than most."

"It's no big deal. I should be apologizing for taking up your time," Rin said placing her hand over her chest. "I'm sure that Inuyasha wasn't too thrilled to find out that you weren't joining him."

Kagome waved her hand at Rin gesturing. "Oh, don't worry. He's at the gym with Koga making a fool of himself. Even though Koga is in love with Ayame now, they still seem to be rivals." Rin cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Oh, I don't think I've ever told you that story." She leaned in towards Rin despite the fact that her door was closed and whispered, "Koga was once in love with me before Inuyasha would admit that he loved me. Koga used to come by often to flirt with me, which made Inuyasha so mad. But enough about me. What's going on with you right now?"

Rin finished chewing the rice and vegetables slowly as she tried to control her emotions. It had been difficult for her all day knowing full well that Sesshomaru was only a couple of floors above her. "I have to apologize for my behavior on Friday."

Before she could continue on Kagome interrupted her by explaining, "I knew that as soon as those two started fighting that you would eventually get curious to see who was fighting and then notice that Sesshomaru was part of the problem. Frankly I didn't like the idea of hiding it from you, but Sesshomaru insisted."

"And I guess he can be quite intimidating after hearing that fist fight in Inuyasha's office, but that's not really what I need to talk to you about. You see, he came over and apologized but then said before he left that he couldn't continue seeing me because he had to hide some other things from me. As his sister-in-law, do you have any idea of what he could be hiding from me?" Her eyes were pleading, and Kagome couldn't help but feel compassion for her.

Rin put another bite of food into her mouth and chewed it nervously while waiting for Kagome's response. Kagome, on the other hand, was plotting out how she would put her plan into work. "Do you remember me mentioning the fact that you appear to be a reincarnation of someone?"

"Yes," Rin pipped up. "Sesshomaru says that I appear to be a reincarnation of the woman who they built a shrine to only a few blocks from my apartment."

"Right. Well, you really are her reincarnation, and Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and I all have something to do with your past life." The shock on Rin's face was quite apparent, and she dropped the bite on her fork back into the container. "But in order for you to understand everything I will need to hypnotize you so that I can bring the memories of your past life back to you." Rin nodded numbly so Kagome continued, "How about you stay overnight at my house and I'll do it tonight. You'll have to use your PTO paid time off to take off all of tomorrow because after I do the hypnotism you'll sleep for up to 24 hours as your mind plays back to you all of your memories."

Kagome walked around her desk and bent down next to Rin to hug her. "Don't worry," she cooed. "Everything will start making sense tomorrow. Then you and Sesshomaru can be together again." She smiled at Rin, so Rin smiled back to her newfound friend. Rin then returned back to her desk to finish the rest of her lunch break in a complete daze.

When Rin got home she packed an overnight bag and immediately started walking to the address Kagome had written down for her. Once at the house she could hear the sound of children running around in the backyard in the snow. The house was rather modest in comparison to Sesshomaru's house, yet they fit 8 people into this house with little problem.

Inuyasha opened the door and stepped aside to let her in as he yelled, "Oi, Kagome, Rin's here!" He slammed the door behind her as was his custom and went looking for his mate leaving Rin standing in the entranceway with her overnight bag still in her hand.

It seemed like a couple of minutes before Kagome appeared with around 3 children in tow. "Rin, I'm sorry." She took Rin's bag from her and walked down the hallway with Rin assuming to follow her. They entered the living room and Kagome put the bag just around the corner next to the wall. "Have you eaten yet?" Rin shook her head in the negative. "Well, we were about to sit down. Would you like to join us?"

Rin agreed and walked into the kitchen to find the whole family preparing to sit down for a meal. When Rin had heard that there were 6 children in their home, she had assumed they were all younger children especially considering how both Kagome and Inuyasha appeared to be in only their late 30's. But each of the children from oldest to youngest appeared to be born within 3 years of the one before them.

Dinner was quite a circus with Inuyasha grabbing food from the middle of the table without asking for it and Kagome constantly complaining about his bad table manners after all of the years they had been married. Once dinner was finished she left Inuyasha and the children to clean up the kitchen while she took Rin to get her bag and then go upstairs to a guest room.

Rin was instructed to dress in her pajamas and then to sit on the edge of the bed. It took only a couple of minutes for Rin to fall into a sleep like trance, and it did not take long for the hypnotism to be completed. Rin was then left in a deep sleep as the events of her past life and her current life to date ran rapidly through her mind.

Kagome had taken off the next day from work also and stayed at home with the youngest child, yet Rin did not wake up until 25 hours later. After taking a much needed bathroom break she went downstairs fully dressed hoping to find something to eat but was pleased to find them getting ready to sit down for dinner. What caught her off guard was how everyone worked. Inuyasha had his usual features: dog ears, claws, silver hair, and golden eyes. The children also had a mix of demon traits now showing: some with silver hair, some with golden eyes, some with claws, and one with dog ears.

Rin sat down between the 2 youngest children and gulped down her food since her stomach was aching from a lack of food. As she ate she thought over everything that had happened to her soul to-date. Sesshomaru, her Sesshomaru, was the demon lord who had brought her back from the dead twice and saved her on numerous occasions. She had loved him, and he had shown his first true emotion to her when he cried as she died for the final time in the Feudal Era. At the shrine he had told her that he had loved her and erected the statue to let everyone know she was buried there. He was in love with her then, and the fact that he still visited the shrine every year meant that he still loved her now.

What puzzled her was how Kagome had lived so long and how everyone was able to hide their traits at will. She knew that she would have a number of questions to ask Kagome when they got the chance.

Upon finishing the meal and the cleaning up of the kitchen, Kagome took Rin to the office to let her ask what questions she felt she needed to ask. "Kagome, how...how are you still alive?"

Kagome wanted to laugh because she had not expected that question to be the first out of Rin's mouth. "After you died I decided to make a wish upon the Shikon no Tama. I wished that every human that mated with a demon or a half-demon be exempt from illness so that they could only die by a brutal death or by the death of their demon or half-demon mate." Rin nodded her head not sure if she should believe everything she heard until she reasoned that after gaining back her memories it was possible for anything to happen.

"How is it that demons and half-demons can turn their demon traits on and off?"

"They don't turn them on and off," Kagome explained. One of Inuyasha's work shirts was sitting on the desk, but Rin hadn't noticed until Kagome picked it up. She flipped it inside out and pointed at a long tag that had been sewn into the hem of the right side of the shirt. It looked to be a sutra. "A witch came up with a way to alter certain traits for the person who has this against their skin," she said pointing at the sutra.

"This must be a magical thing?"

"It is. I was taught how to use my spiritual talents to make these things," explained Kagome, who pulled open a drawer and then took out a number of sutras. "I can make anyone look older or younger. I can change eye and hair color and even made certain traits look human. We use this to make humans think that we are aging. When we get old enough to retire, we do and come back later looking like a young, fresh, new person. It's helped us hide for a hundred years now."

Rin soaked everything in like a sponge. This world was so much complicated than she had every thought possible. Her thoughts suddenly changed when Kagome observed, "I thought you would have wanted to talk about Sesshomaru."

"What about Sesshomaru," Rin asked excitedly looking up and Kagome and staring her in the eyes. "I know he is the demon who brought me back to life and who loved me."

"He still loves you, Rin. I know that because I know that you are soul mates."

Rin looked away from Kagome by first looking up and then looking just to the right of her at a particular bookcase for no reason. "Do soul mates really exist?"

"They do." She stood up and picked a book out of one of the bookshelves behind her. Rin watched as Kagome flipped through the book until she found what she was looking for. "This says that souls are the ones that fall in love. When two souls fall in love, their souls will always seek other the other for all eternity." She closed the book and confessed, "I know that Inuyasha and I are soul mates because the woman who had my soul first was Kikyo, who was Inuyasha's first love. Then he fell in love with me just as he fell in love and I with him." She pulled Rin into a hug and offered her the chance to stay another night.

Rin decided it would be best to leave her friend to be alone with her family, which she also found out was much larger as they had a child every 3 years since they had mated. Once at home she collapsed on the couch and remembered the kiss she and Sesshomaru had shared on it only a couple of days before. She vowed that tomorrow she would face him again but this time knowing the truth of what he was.


	9. I Want You

Sesshomaru had noticed that everyone once coming to work had changed into their sutra-free clothing that Tuesday. When he asked Kouga why it was that everyone was dressed in such a way he was told, "Kagome sent a memo stating that Rin wouldn't be in today or tomorrow so we could dress however we wanted."

Sesshomaru growled thinking that she had gone over her head, but then he thought about Rin being at home for two days and wondered if his decision had anything to do with it. Unfortunately he would not allow himself to check in on her because he needed a clean break from her if he was to survive the rest of his life without her.

On Wednesday Rin waited for Kagome to pick her up. It was Kagome's idea that they both come into the office together so that Kagome could introduce her to everyone in their natural state of being. As they went floor to floor Rin noticed all of their surprised expressions as they noticed her there. She figured out quickly that Kagome had sent a memo stating that she would be out of the office that day. They were grateful, however, to find out that they could wear their sutra-free clothing again without fear while they were at work.

Once they reached the top floor Kagome made sure to knock on Jaken's door. The small demon yelled out, "What do you want?" through the door.

Kagome started shouting at Jaken through the door and he finally emerged by peeking his head out the door. What he had not anticipated was seeing Rin standing there in the hallway behind Kagome. After a shriek escaped his lips he slammed the door closed again. Rin now walked up to the door and said in a normal tone of voice, "Jaken, it's okay. It's me, Rin. I promise that I don't do anything to you."

Jaken once again opened the door to find the human girl smiling at him her beautifully bright smile. She picked him up in her arms and gave him a big hug. "Do you remember me?" he was able to barely squeak out as the breath was knocked out of him by her tight hug.

"I do remember you perfectly," she said happily as she put him back down. "I am glad to see you still alive. I almost lost you once." She watched as he blushed slightly the day the young Rin had risked her own life to find the antidote to save him from the poison of Naraku's insects. Granted, it had been her fault that they had to battle with the demons since she was the one who came across them.

Kagome butted in by saying, "Jaken, could you do us a big favor?"

"What could you want, human wench," he snapped at her only to feel her high heal come down on his head.

"Don't think you can take that tone with me!" she screamed out at him in anger for the degrading name he called her. "Now, you don't have a choice in the matter. You are going to get Rin in to see Sesshomaru as soon as possible."

Jaken rubbed his head slightly and cursed under his breath as he waddled to the small desk sitting on the other side of the room. He picked up an appointment book and announced, "He won't be available again until 10. Come back then." He slammed the appointment book down on the desk and sat in the chair with his arms folded in a pouting mood.

Rin decided it was best to leave her former traveling companion alone and grabbed Kagome's arm to drag Kagome with her back to their floor. She would just have to get plenty of work done in the next hour and a half before she could get her chance to see Sesshomaru.

At five minutes to ten o'clock she gathered her courage and marched herself up the stairs to Sesshomaru's office two floors above her. Jaken gave her a face until he realized that Rin this time was not accompanied by Kagome. He slipped past her down the hallway to the grand doors that stood between her and Sesshomaru. Jaken knocked on the door and announced, "Lord Sesshomaru, you have a visitor."

The booming voice on the other side of the door replied, "Tell them I am too busy to talk today."

Jaken's voice shook as he said to the door again, "But I think you might want to see this person."

The door to the left opened and Jaken scrambled away from the door. As Rin slowly approached she heard a desk chair creak as he sat down in it. She wondered if his demon senses was able to smell her, but he said not a word positive or negative to her.

The office was quite large, and immediately Rin noticed a couch in the corner of the room visible from the open door. She stepped in and noticed that there were file cabinets and bookshelves grouped in the corner across from the couches and the desk sat near the large windows that made up the next corner of the room.

Sesshomaru's eyes grew brighter upon seeing Rin's form standing there in his doorway. His mind was now filled with wonderment as to why she was standing there and how much she had seen on the way to his office. His heart and stomach started fluttering upon the mere sight of her. He rose to his feet and closed the door behind her as she moved to the center of the room. "To what do I owe this pleasure."

Before any more words could be said she had thrown herself around him in a hug. He normally did not like to be touched, but right now he could certainly make an exception because of the woman hugging him. "I'm sorry, Sesshomaru-sama," she excused herself as she let go of him and stood up straight again. The name she called him burned a whole in his heart remembering how she had called him that a long time ago. Why had she suddenly decided to be so formal with him?

He reached out to her but she backed away from him slowly. "Rin, why are you so formal with me all of a sudden?"

She turned away from him slightly. "I can't help it. It's just that you have been my protector for so long." He once again tried to reach out for her but she once again backed away from him. "I'm sorry, but I just have to know something."

"Ask whatever it is that your heart desires," he said to her affectionately. He wished more than anything to be able to touch her right at that moment. Since that kiss only a couple of nights before he had desired nothing more than to feel her touch again.

She looked down at the ground and then back up at him but turned her eyes away so that they were now looking anywhere else. "Do you still hate humans?" Sesshomaru furrowed his eyebrows trying to figure out where this question had come from. "You did love a human once, but you would not take her as yours because she was what she was."

Sesshomaru's heart ached as she talked about the first Rin as if she had personal knowledge of everything that had happened. Rin felt her heart beat more and more wildly in her chest as she anticipated his answer. "Has Kagome been telling you stories again?"

That was not exactly the answer she had expected from him. "No, she didn't tell me of my past. She did help me to draw forth my memories from the deepest reaches of my mind." She looked up at his eyes again to see them become softer from her words.

He once again reached out to her but took a small lock of her hair in his fingers and stroked it gently. It was not hard for him to sense the anxiety coursing through her body at this moment. Thinking it best that she sit down her offered her a seat on the couch and sat down in an adjacent chair in order to give her space. "I did fall in love with you all of those years ago, but I had let my pride get in the way of making you my mate. It was hard to be without you all of these years, but I had to move on to protect the decreasing number of demons put under my trust."

Rin hung off every word from his mouth entirely aware of the slightly negative tone that was laced in his voice. There was something large that he need to tell her that he was afraid to tell her. "Now I have the chance to make you mine again but you didn't know who you were. I thought it best not to reveal to you what you were because I thought you could not handle the shock. I have to admit that you always were stronger than I ever gave you credit for.

"But only a few years ago I found out that there was only one more dog demon left in this world, and it is a female demon. As the remaining two of our clan it is my responsibility to mate with her and bring more dog demon pups into this world." The words crushed Rin's heart even more than the first time he had told her that he could not be with her. He was the lord of the demons, and he had a great responsibility towards those he was protecting.

"It hurts me to say these things to you. I wish this was under any other circumstances." He wished to hold her in his arms and hold her there close to him for the rest of his days because the complete sorrow she was feeling at this moment was radiating off of her. The tears started pouring out of her eyes and she planted her face in her hands to hide them from the man she loved. As each tear fell from her eyes the more he gained the courage to walk over and hold her close to him.

She felt him pick her up and then sit down on the couch again with her wrapped up bridal style in his arms. "I love you, Rin. Please know that I do love you with all of my heart," he told her softly. She would remain in his arms for the next five minutes until she could calm herself down. She leaned back from him so he asked her, "Are you okay?" She nodded her head like a child having just had their scrape kissed by a loving parent.

She stood up insensibly and stared at the door. Her mind was telling her to get away, but her body stayed rooted to the spot she was in. As she debated with herself another thought popped into her head. She felt a little awkward giving into the thought and asked him in a shaky voice, "Sesshomaru-sama, may I please see you once more as you were when I was under your care?"

He stood up right next to her and put his index finger and thumb on her chin again to make her look up at his face. "Please don't call me Sesshomaru-sama again. I am simply Sesshomaru." He stood back from her. "I have sutras on nearly every article of clothing on me. Do you still wish to see me without them?" The nod she gave him was all the answer he got from her.

He unbuttoned his shirt and put it gently on the couch to keep it from wrinkling as Rin watched him intensely. This would be the most she would see of her love's body since he had always stayed well clothed in the Feudal Era. He then lifted his undershirt over his head revealing his muscular upper body and upper arms. Rin blushed as she noticed that he was well aware of where her eyes were going.

He then unbuckled the belt on his pants and slipped them off one leg at a time. His boxer briefs did little to disguise the full blown erection he had at the thought of being nearly naked in front of the woman he desired above all. She looked him over drinking in the sight of his white hair and golden eyes to the well sculpted muscles on his legs, arms, and chest.

Without thinking Rin stepped closer and took his left hand in hers. She examined the claws on his fingers that had always been so gentle when he touched her but had also killed hundreds of humans and demons many times in order to protect her. She lightly touched the stripes on his wrist with her lift index finger as she held his hand in her left one. The feelings her touch gave to him made his skin crawl from sheer delight.

She then delicately examined on his left arm the spot where he had once lost his arm. It was now flesh and blood again, but there was still a slight scar left over. He watched as her fingers slowly ran over the scar as if trying to feel if there was a ridge left in the smooth skin. Sesshomaru then looked back at Rin's face to see that her cheeks were turning scarlet as if she was starting to understand how bold her actions were. Her eyes, though, we entirely fixated on the skin under her fingers.

Her hands then ran over the muscles on his upper arms feeling the way in which they rippled under her fingers. Her hands ran over his chest and down to his waist where she traced the stripes there with her fingers just as she had with his left wrist. She could easily see that his erection was now peeking out from the waist band of his underwear as if reaching up to her begging for her to touch it, but she knew better to give in to that temptation.

Her hands ran over his chest again upwards and then skipped over to his face. She moved even closer to him in order to reach up to his face better. Her height only came up to his chin so she had to reach up while he leaned his head down so that she could trace the stripes on his cheeks and the crescent moon on his forehead. She could feel in his chest deep rumbling from the pleasure he was deriving from her touch.

Her hands then both went to the ears and her fingers stroked the edges of the ears starting at the earlobes and making their way up to the pointed tips. The lust building up in Sesshomaru finally came to a boiling point and he greedily kissed her running his hands all over her body. Rin moaned and arched into his body not knowing what kind of reaction it was causing his body to have.

Before he could do anything more Kouga burst through the door. Seeing Sesshomaru standing there in only his underwear and socks while kissing Rin made him close the door again before Sesshomaru could inflict any harm on him. "Sesshomaru, you need to see something immediately," he announced through a the now slightly cracked door.

Rin walked around Sesshomaru and grabbed his undershirt from the couch as Sesshomaru hastily put his pants back on. As he put his undershirt on Rin held out his shirt to him. She was disappointed that their brief moment of happiness had to end, but she was rather glad that things didn't go as far as they could have because it would have been more difficult for her to leave him then.

Once Sesshomaru started buttoning his dress shirt Rin left the room signaling to Kouga that he could enter the room again. Sesshomaru growled at him but Kouga did not shrink back. "Hey, you said that you weren't planning on producing heirs with a human. But right now there is something much more important than you getting laid."

Kouga strode over to the TV on one of the cabinets against the wall and flipped to a local news channel. There was a female reporter talking as the picture zoomed in on a couple of the employees of the company. The reporter said, "Yesterday night these two demons exposed themselves to a couple of women. No one has seen demons in a hundred years, and the fact that they were able to disguise themselves makes authorities wonder how many more demons may still be out there. No word yet on what will happen to the demons, but experts are saying that the prime minister might find it best to end their lives before they try to breed with human women."

Sesshomaru jerked the remote from Kouga's hand and shut off the TV before slamming the remote on the cabinet next to the TV. "Who in the hell let the both of them go to Hiroshima together?"

"I don't know exactly. But we don't have much of a choice now."

Sesshomaru slumped into his chair thinking about the great many lives that would now be displaced because of the carelessness of a couple of demons. They had known for a long time that one day they would have to be prepared for the day in which they would be discovered. If they were to stay they would be hunted down like animals and all put to death. Sure, they could take on an army of humans any day, but there were far too many humans these days and most of the demons and half-demons remaining had mated with humans making it difficult for them to kill humans.

Only a few years before Sesshomaru had sent a number of demon scouts out to find an island in the Pacific Ocean that was yet to be settled and could handle the population of their kind. An island was found and quickly a barrier was placed over it making it invisible to all except those who knew it to be there. The island was quickly settled by a number of demons who went ahead to settle the island by producing hydro power from the many waterfalls and build houses for all of the demons when the time was needed to move the entire immortal population there.

That was how he had met her, Haruka. She was one of the demons he had sent ahead, but he had hoped that Rin wouldn't be accompanying them when he was to be united with Haruka again. He would have to keep his promise, but now it would be more difficult for him to do the responsible thing.

"I want the women and children and the human males to leave on the first shift tonight. They are to leave at nine o'clock tonight. Please dismiss them from work now to make sure they pack." He turned his chair to face Kouga full on now. "And Rin is to come with us. Now that she knows the truth we cannot leave her or they will destroy her also." He leaned his head down to disguise the grimace on his face at the thought of his dear Rin being hurt by her own kind because she loved and was loved by demons. "Now go!" he yelled to get Kouga out of his office.


	10. Where Are We Going?

Rin noticed when she got to her floor that no one was around, so she went searching for them only to find most of them crammed into or in front of Inuyasha's office glued to the TV. She tried to look over them but was unable to do so. Finally seeing Ginta she tapped him on the shoulder and asked him, "What's everyone watching?"

Ginta's face showed serious concern alerting Rin to the immense danger they were were in. "A couple of guys who work here revealed their true selves to prostitutes and let them get away. They've been taken in, and the authorities are wanting to check if there are others out there like us." Rin gasped as she heard the news and was completely speechless. "But we have a backup plan. There's an island with a barrier out there that has been prepared for several years for all of us to go out there to hide." He turned back to the crowd and tried to look over the many people in front of him.

Before Rin could ask anymore there was an announcement sounding from every phone in the office. It was Kouga's voice being broadcasted for all to hear. "Alright, listen up! We're going to have to start the evacuation tonight. Women, children, and human males be prepared to leave at nine o'clock tonight. All male demons and half-demons be prepared to leave at two in the morning. You are all dismissed for the rest of the day to get ready."

The throng of the crowd dispersed almost immediately heading for the stairs since the elevators would likely be packed. Rin was left standing there alone as Inuyasha was currently trying to convince Kagome to leave on the earlier shift. Rin collapsed in the closest chair she could find and wondered what would happen to her. She could easily find a new job, and she did not have anything to be worried about since she was human. What she worried about was being interrogated by her own kind into revealing what had happened to the rest of the company, to everyone that worked her besides her. She also knew more than anything that this truly had been the last time she would see Sesshomaru because he would be gone from her for the rest of her life.

She heard the sound of a male voice coming near her but she stayed frozen in the chair her mind still half consumed in her thoughts. The man shook her slightly and she looked up to find that it was Kouga. "Sesshomaru wanted me to look for you personally. Now that you know our secret, he doesn't want you staying here. Go home and pack up your stuff and meet us by the port. Pack only your clothes and necessities and anything you absolutely cannot live without as long as it's small."

"But I have no way to get all of that back to the office," she informed him. "I can call Ginta and have him pick you up. What's your address?" he asked as he pulled his cellphone from the clip on his belt and searched for Ginta in his address book. She wrote down the address on a sheet of paper and he ordered Ginta to pick Rin up at the address she had listed by 8:30.

With that done she slowly climbed the stairs down the twelve floors trying hard not to trip on the steps since her mind had gone completely blank. For the first time in her life she did not quite understand what was happening or what would happen. She did not like the feeling of being completely helpless especially knowing that in her past life there had been Sesshomaru to guide her path.

She got home an hour later and pulled out all of her luggage to pack it as full as possible. It would only take her an hour and she would not need to fix dinner for another five hours or be ready to leave in another three hours from there. Knowing that it was likely that there would be such a panic that night that sleeping would be difficult she took the next few hours to take a nap and get refreshed for the long night ahead of her.

At 8:20 Ginta showed up at her apartment door startling her. She opened the door to see his smiling face despite the fact that he had been ordered to get her. "Are you ready?" he asked her nicely before noticing her suitcases packed up next to the door. There were only three suitcases, much less than his five, so it did not take them long to get her things packed up in his car. Rin insisted that she get the chance to look around her apartment one more time before they left. She felt quite silly wanting to look around again, but she was fully aware by the sadness in her gut that this was the last time she would see it and her old life she had never thought twice about until Sesshomaru entered her life again.

They were amongst the first to arrive and he helped her get her luggage put on the boat under the watchful eyes of Inuyasha, Kouga, and Sesshomaru. Thankfully the company had the ability to buy a rather luxurious yacht or there would not have been enough space for all of them and their possessions. Rin found a seat on the back deck of the ship as many of the others were still getting situated or just arriving. From her seat she could barely see Sesshomaru, but she was able to see how rigidly he stood making sure that things were running as smoothly as they could. She knew that pressures he was under at this moment and was thankful that he was well suited to care them on because at this moment he was fully responsible for the safety of the entire immortal race.

Rin was joined shortly by Kagome and her six children that she had met only a couple of evenings before. They would later be joined by all of Kagome's daughters and daughters-in-law that still survived. The sheer number of them was tremendous, and Rin could only wonder how many more children Kagome had lost to fighting over the 500 years she had been mated to Inuyasha.

Ayame also joined them with her large litter of younger children. She too had a large litter of children over the years, but it was widely believed amongst the immortal peoples that they needed to produce more children in hopes of keeping their race from entirely disappearing off of the face of the earth. Soon the young children were fast asleep and the other ladies were keeping a silent vigil. Rin found herself falling asleep only a couple hours after the yacht departed the harbor.

The sun's early morning rays shone across Rin's sleeping face causing her to stir from her sleep. She looked around to find nearly every female on the ship sleeping on futons that had been handed out earlier that night or sitting in chairs. Rin's neck hurt from being slumped back against the back of the chair for so long, but she would not complain since she was now safer than had she been at home today when the humans of Tokyo woke to find that the entire Taiyouki Industries staff completely missing from the face of the earth.

There were a number of demon women keeping guard over the sleeping bunch in case of surprises, but they ignored her glances. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes she wondered where the bathroom was and tiptoed over the sleeping bodies as she went in search of it. When she came back though, she found that nearly everyone was awake. "Rin-chan!" Kagome called out as if relieved of fright. "I was worried something had happened to you."

Rin shook her head as she said, "Nope. I was just using the bathroom." She pointed her thumb behind her shoulder before she turned to sit down.

Kagome, who had been sitting next to her the whole night, leaned in and said to her, "Next time you wander away make sure to take one of my daughters with you. Some of the demons here don't understand why you're here, and last night some of them threatened to throw you off the ship." Rin gulped upon hearing the bad report Kagome gave her. "I didn't tell them that Sesshomaru loves you because I was afraid of how they would react. They said something last night about Sesshomaru promising to mate with the last remaining dog demon on the island."

Rin nodded her head in understanding and to let Kagome know that they were speaking the truth. "I'm so sorry," Kagome said leaning over to hug Rin awkwardly. As Kagome released her she said, "I had no idea he was engaged. How are you holding up?" 

Rin shrugged her shoulders. Honestly she did not know how she felt. It tore her apart to know that Sesshomaru could not be hers because of a responsibility despite the fact that they were soul mates. But she was now conflicted inside knowing that he would always be nearby and she would have to see him mated to another and raising their children together. However, if she had stayed she would have felt the pain of their separation until her kind tortured her until she could handle it no longer.

It would be 24 hour trip until they arrived at the island. There were other demons to help the passengers get their luggage off the yacht and to carry it to the houses that had been to all the families. Some families were given larger houses because of the sheer size of their family, but most were put into similar three bedroom houses. After all of the house keys were passed out to the other people only Rin found herself standing there amongst the island's previous inhabitants.

"I'm sorry, miss, but I don't think we were ever informed that you would be coming," a male fox demon said to her.

She looked down at the ground and said glumly, "I know you haven't. I wasn't suppose to come in the first place, but I let my selfish desires get the best of me." She looked up to see that the fox demon was actually quite concerned about her. "Don't worry. We have several more houses still unused." He picked up two of her suitcases leaving her with just one, and he lead the way to one of the houses on the outside western border of the town before leaving her alone with her house.

They had done well to make the place inhabitable including producing their own electricity, housing, and food supplies. Rin looked around the house at the bare furnishments, but she figured that over time she would find some way to spruce it up. 'Besides,' she thought, "I won't be here long. Not nearly as long as the rest of the people on this island.' She put on her pajamas, washed her face with the linens provided to her, and brushed her teeth before turning in for the night. Since it was a three bedroom house she got her pick of the bed in which she wanted to sleep in. Figuring that it was best for her to use the master bedroom she sank into the soft bed and plush sheets and blankets and fell asleep immediately.

The males arrived around two in the morning very much awake since they did not need sleep like the weaker humans most had bond themselves to. After everyone had left for their homes except for that evening's guard Sesshomaru headed for the largest house on the island to find that Haruka's scent was over every inch of the place. She was waiting for him in the master bedroom wearing nothing but a thin piece of human lingerie. Her grin made his stomach want to revolt and he turned his back on her. "Get dressed and move to another house," he commanded her sternly.

"But you said that you would become my mate," she pointed out to him.

"I said that I would make you my mate, but I did not say when I would do so. We have many centuries to produce children, so please leave until I command you to return to me." He left her there speechless, but she did as she was told grudgingly.

The house keys had been entrusted to the care of the night guards, so Sesshomaru checked the register to find where Rin was and to take her spare key with him. He found her house on the edge of town and quiet. Decucing that she had already gone to bed he stole into her bedroom and sat on the bed next to her to keep watch over her as she slept. He could not admit it to anyone else, but just being close to Rin made him feel completely at ease.


	11. I'm Going To Make You Mine

Rin awoke the next morning alone again. The way the sheets were on the other side of the bed appeared as if someone had been sitting on the other side of the bed at one time, but she dismissed that fantasy. Maybe it was the fact that now she was going to be close to Sesshomaru always because now there was no where to run off to. They were surrounded by water, and leaving the island was not an option.

Right now she didn't want to go anywhere. This was the first time since she had learned the awful truth that she had to really be alone to her thoughts. The more she sat there the more the tears poured down her cheeks. Her breath hitched in her throat as she sobbed into her pillow. 'What a fool I am,' she thought, 'that I should be crying again. If there were any way I could steal him away from her it's not through crying. I have to prove that I'm worth giving up on his clan.' Her tears dried and she determined that today she really would try to win him back.

As she got to the harbor she realized that she was one of the last ones to get there. They were listing off the duties that were assigned to each of them as they turned their new home into a habitable place with the sheer size of the population now. Rin listened carefully as they listed off each person's name and their new job title. Some were assigned to run the power plant, others to build houses and fix streets, and still others to run the businesses including the stores.

Finally Rin found herself alone in the harbor besides Sesshomaru and the fox demon from the night before as everyone had left to see what was needed to be done. As much as she needed to talk to him she would not do so in front of the fox demon. Sesshomaru would not look at her and left without saying a word. The fox demon stepped up to her and asked, "How do you like your house?"

She was quite certain the fox demon was aware that she was not watching him but Sesshomaru's vanishing figure. "It's okay," she said mindlessly.

"Good. Well, I'm not sure if you remember me," he said as he ducked into her line of vision. "I'm Shippo. I used to travel with Inuyasha and his group in the Feudal Era."

Rin looked at him carefully before her face lit up in recognition. "Oh, right, Shippo. You've grown up since then."

"I have," he said puffing out his chest to impress her. "Well, I hope you enjoy accounting."

"That's what I went to school for," she informed him wondering what he was getting at.

"Sesshomaru determined that we are to work under him at the town hall. You are to make sure people are paying their taxes and the city's bills are getting paid. I will be working with you making sure everything is getting done. I have to do the inspections and awarding of licenses, etc. We'll both be working under Sesshomaru, but he's also in charge of the police force and the island's economy. But he'll be working from his office at home."

Rin nodded her head and followed after him when he started towards the city hall. The lack of supplies and organization vexed Rin for a good part of that week, but then again it seemed like her life had just ended and she was merely floating through the motions.

What didn't help was that Haruka often came by to "check in" on Rin and try to boss her around. She knew not how it was that Haruka had figured out that Sesshomaru was certain that it had something to do with the way she was treated by the woman. In truth, Haruka had figured it out when she often came over to see Sesshomaru only to smell Rin's scent on him from his nightly visits to watch over Rin. Haruka had also figured out that there was a specific reason behind why Sesshomaru had rejected mating with her now, and Rin seemed like the only thing out of order in the population, especially when the cold Sesshomaru decided to bring an unmated human with them.

It would be a couple of months before Rin would see Sesshomaru in person again. He showed up at the office looking for Shippo, who was currently out on his lunch break. Seeing that it they were alone he locked the door behind him and closed the curtains. He then sat down in Shippo's chair. As he opened his mouth to say something Rin was already sitting in his lap pulling him in for a kiss that he gratefully returned with equal fervor.

As they kissed she tried her hardest to touch him in ways that would turn him on, but he pushed her away from him. "Rin, I almost took advantage of you once before, but it would be wrong of us to go too far when we can't be together. It would only make it harder for you."

"It's already too hard for me," she whined giving him a pouting face. Her hands tangled themselves in his hair and she massaged the back of his head with her right hand, a low groan coming deep from his chest. "I want you more than I can tell you." She once again kissed him but he did not kiss her back.

"I love you, Rin, too much to let you get your way right now." With that said he stood up and straightened his kimono just as Shippo was unlocking the door.

"Did I interrupt something?" Shippo asked looking between Rin and Sesshomaru, who were still in close proximity to each other and Rin's face was still flushed. "Because I can leave if you need me to."

"I was coming to talk to you," Sesshomaru said as if nothing had happened. The two men left Rin alone as they walked out of the building and down the street together. Rin slumped into her chair frustrated. This was not like her, throwing herself at someone, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The rest of the day Shippo wouldn't even look at her. "Stop it!" she finally yelled out loud as the work day was coming to a close.

"Stop what?" he asked her.

"Stop trying to pretend like I'm not here! I know what it looked like when you walked in, and it was probably close to what you are thinking it was." She waited for him to look back at her but he still wouldn't.

It took him a couple of seconds to respond calmly, "I know he's your soul mate. Kagome informed me of that a month ago."

She grew more frustrated at his behavior since he knew the truth. Putting her hands on her hips she asked him, "Then what is the big deal?"

"I thought I interrupted you." Rin furrowed her eyebrows as he looked up at her. "I can't pretend that I don't think you're good looking, and I assume that he doesn't turn you away even though you are not his chosen."

"Don't worry about it," she said in a forgiving tone. "He's too honorable of a man to do that." Not one more word was said between them for the remaining 20 minutes. Rin was quick to leave for home and locked herself inside. Her back rested against the door as she slid down to the floor. "Sometimes I wonder if I should even try anymore." The tears in her eyes welled up again, but she tried her best not to let them fall.

Sesshomaru got home from his day to find Haruka at home again. "Why do you smell like that human?" she questioned him, a scowl deeply etched into her face. "I told you that I would not be disrespected by her."

"You have nothing to worry about," he assured her. "I have made a promise to you, and I intend to keep my promise. I will not forget my responsibility to our race." Her eyes grew red at being called a responsibility. "I will not mate with you just yet, so you do not have to worry about being disrespected by her presence." He walked past her and up towards his bedroom before stopping to say, "Get out of my house," without even looking at her.

He tried to sleep in his bed tonight, but his body simply would not allow it. This afternoon feeling Rin sitting in his lap trying to throw herself on him felt right and wrong all at the same time. That was not the Rin he fell in love with, but he realized that she was probably trying hard to keep him to herself. Yet the feeling of her desiring him only mirrored his own desire for her.

After tossing and turning for a couple of hours he decided that he would not sleep until he sat by Rin's sleep side for a little while. He knew it was wrong to spend nearly every evening at her side, but anymore he had come to depend on it.

Once there he could smell the tears that had been shed for him before she had fallen asleep. He took his usual space on the bed and leaned his head back against the headboard as he slouched into a more comfortable position. Sleep overtook him not long after.

At some point during the night Rin was awakened by something touching her. She woke up with a start, which, in turn, woke up the sleeping demon who was now spooning her. "Sesshomaru," she gasped as she saw him through the light caused by the full moon streaming in through her open window. "What are you doing here?" She turned in his grasp to look at him fully.

"I come often," he said sleepily, not entirely in control of his speech and reactions. All he knew at the moment was that she looked angelic with the moonlight highlighting her face. His lips crashed upon hers as he scooped her up so that she was now laying atop of him. "I love you, Rin," he whispered in her ear as he kissed the side of her face.

The lovers finally gave into their passions as the night became day.


	12. Are You?

Rin and Sesshomaru decided after that night that it would be best if they were to no longer see each other, or at least when they had to see each other not to be alone together. It wasn't something that came easily to either of them, but if they were not allowed to be happy together it was best to remain separate as it made reality easier to stand.

A couple of weeks after their night together Rin noticed that her period was rather late. Another week went by and she assumed it was probably from the stress of their separation and said not a word of it to anyone. Then she started noticing other things that were not quite normal, and it did not take her long to realize that she was pregnant. Not knowing what to do, she started wearing baggier clothing in hopes of hiding the bump that was starting to appear.

Two months into the pregnancy she finally decided that it was time to visit the midwife. When she got there she saw Kagome was getting ready to leave. Neither had seen much of each other in the past couple of months, so Kagome made sure to embrace her and then ask what she was doing there. By the looks of it, Kagome was now pregnant again, but there was no logical reason in the miko's mind as to why Rin would be there. "I don't want to talk about it," Rin mumbled looking away from her friend.

"Rin," Kagome asked, concern laced in her voice. "Is there something I don't know about?"

Rin thought she was going to be saved by the midwife's entrance but was sorely disappointed when the midwife offered Kagome the chance to stay and be by Rin's side if Rin consented. Not wanting to appear rude, Rin agreed to it even though her head told her better than to allow it to happen.

The midwife prepared the sonogram machine, which had been smuggled out of Japan some years before, in preparations of seeing the half-demon growing within Rin. "I didn't know you were pregnant!" Kagome said excitedly. "Wait! Does HE know?" she asked insinuating to Sesshomaru.

"No, and he won't," Rin told her friend sternly. Turning to the midwife she asked, "Is there anyway to abort the baby?"

The look of horror on both Kagome's and the midwife's faces was quite scary. "Of course not." The midwife scolded her thoroughly, "This is a child, a helpless being, and I would never consent to killing a child. You should feel blessed to have this child growing inside of you."

"But the father will not have me or the child," she protested. "If he finds out his future mate will kill me and the child."

"Maybe not," Kagome suggested. "Maybe he'll mate with you now that you are carrying his child."

"He already loves me and can't mate with me," Rin in turn protested. "He has put his responsibilities over me, and my carrying his child, his half-demon child, is going to change his mind."

"You don't know that." Kagome smiled at Rin, but her heart was so full of turmoil that even a simple smile could not make her happy. "I will go with you right now to tell him." She stood up and helped Rin to get cleaned up and off the table.

As they were heading to Sesshomaru's mansion Rin decided to go alone. "Kagome, thank you for the offer, but I think this is something I should do alone."

"Are you sure?" Kagome asked her stopping in the middle of the street. "I can go with you."

Rin continued on not realizing that Kagome had stopped, so Kagome had to hurry up to hear her say, "I think I will be fine on my own." Kagome stopped her and gave her a hug drawing the attention of many other immortals walking down the sidewalk. "Thanks." With that she continued on down the street.

At the mansion she found Akura sitting behind Sesshomaru's desk. "I've been expecting you," Akura said with a sinister scowl. "The midwife told me you would be coming, but I was expecting my sister-in-law to be with you."

"She's not your sister-in-law," Rin mumbled.

"What did you say?" Akura asked slamming her fists on the desk.

Rin gathered what little courage she had and said in a louder tone, "She's not your sister-in-law because you are not mated with Sesshomaru yet. He's made you a promise and nothing more."

"That's still more than you have," Akura responded snidely. "But then again, you are now carrying something that you think will get you more." Rin backed away as Akura approached her stealthily. "Of course, I could end that thing's life if that's what you really want."

Rin put her hands on her abdomen in a protective manner. "If anyone will end my child's life, it won't be you."

"Don't be so sure of that," she said finally grabbing Rin by the throat and picking her up so that Rin's feet were no longer touching the ground. "If you hope to spare your life and the life of that abomination you are carrying, then you will do as I say." Rin's vision was starting to fade but she could hear Akura's words clearly. "When Sesshomaru gets back here, you will beg him to let you go on the supply restocking trip to Hong Kong. Once you get there you will give your companions the slip and stay there in Hong Kong. You can look for Boksano while you're there."

With that she dropped Rin on the floor as Rin slipped into unconsciousness. When Rin did wake up she found Sesshomaru standing over her as she lay there on the couch. "I don't know what caused her to black out," Akura was innocently telling him. "She was talking about wanting to go on the trip to Hong Kong, and then the next thing I knew she had passed out.

Rin awoke in her own home alone. It was now dark, so there was no reason for her to return to the office. When she got downstairs she found a note on the front table from Sesshomaru giving her permission to leave on the re-supply trip leaving the next morning at 7 A.M.

Right now she was horribly confused as to what to do. She didn't want the child, but when her child was threatened she would rather give up any happiness with Sesshomaru to save it. Then again, she wasn't entirely sure how Sesshomaru would react since he had made a promise out of responsibility to Akura and was reluctant to break it.

But what would happen to her out in the human world when her half-demon child was born? Before she passed out she remembered hearing Akura mention the name Boksano. She remembered an elder dog demon that had tutored her in the Feudal Era by that name, but she and Sesshomaru had both said there were no dog demons left on earth, hence the reason they felt the need to produce heirs together.

Figuring it was best to at least look for this Boksano out of sheer curiosity as to why Akura would mention this person she was eagerly waiting for everyone to show up the next morning for the trip. The trip took less time than the trip from Japan, but it was still nearly a full day of sailing and with all men nonetheless.

Once they got onto dry land Rin helped them with picking out the right supplies they needed, but when it came time to pack everything onto the boat she excused herself and went off on her own in search of Boksano. However, her lack of knowledge about the city would end up getting her into more trouble as she all too quickly wandered into the poverty section of town.

As she asked around the many people hanging out on the streets she felt the presence of someone following her. The feeling didn't leave her as she crossed over into a better part of town, and she decided to run in hopes of getting away from the person. The person caught up with her, however, in a very short amount of time and she was not able to see their face before a bag was thrown over her head.

Her screams attracted the attentions of an older gentleman who had left his windows open in his house that day and he sent for his sons to help him save the young woman outside needing help. Their demon strength and speed quickly did away with the human man who was now trying to carry Rin's limp body away.

The bag was taken off of her head and she looked weakly at the demon men in disguise who had rescued her before fainting. The elder demon recognized her immediately and told his sons, "We need to take her into the house immediately."

"She smells like demons," his eldest son, Isamu, informed him. "How can we trust her?"

The youngest man of the three picked her up and carried her bridal style to their house as his father explained to them, "She is a reincarnation of a young human woman I tutored in the Feudal Era. It is likely that she escaped Japan with them and may be able to give us information."

"How could you have tutored a human, Father?" his youngest son, Amon, asked him. "I thought you only tutored demons of rank."

"I did," he answered him as he climbed the stairs trying to look more elderly than he felt. "Except I also tutored the young ward of Lord Sesshomaru. Upon her death he locked himself into her room for a couple of days only to emerge later to bury her and commission a statute of her to be built over her grave. He later paid to have a shrine built around her grave also. They say that she is his soul mate, but if she has been around him she has not become his mate."

Daiske laid her down on the bed in the guest room as Isamu called for their sister, who lived next door. Ai was over in a couple of minutes and the males cleared out the room so Ai could get a chance to look over Rin for any physical problems. Thankfully the man had done little physical damage and had mainly just scared the wits out of her. What didn't escape the dog demon's vision was the now starting to protrude belly of the pregnant human.

Ai changed Rin into a pair of pajamas she brought with her and closed the door behind her as she entered the hallway. The men were in the kitchen discussing what to do with her. "She's fine," Ai interrupted them. "But I did notice that she's pregnant. I don't know how far along she is because I'm not sure if she's pregnant with a human or a half-demon, but she's probably just into her 2nd trimester."

"We can't keep her around if she's pregnant with a half-demon," Isamu protested to his father.

"We will if she is," Boksano asserted. "She has not mated with his demon, and it seems that she was running away. I am guessing that the father does not know if the child's existence and she is trying to keep it that way." With that said he went to the guest room and sat at a chair at the bedside and read a book waiting for his young pupil to awaken.

Rin slept for a good hour before waking up to the feeling of warm sheets around her. Not knowing where she sat up immediately in the bed and looked around to see the demon sitting next to her out of disguise. She blinked a couple of times as realization of who was now sitting next to the bed hit her. "Sensei?" she asked him.

"Yes?"

So this was the Boksano that Akura had been talking about! But this meant that there were more dog demons still left in this world! "I didn't know you were still alive. Akura and Sesshomaru thought they were the only dog demons left in the world."

"We are not. Most of us dog demons are residing in this part of Hong Kong," he explained to her. In a grave voice he also said, "And Akura and Lord Sesshomaru are well aware of our existence. Akura helped us pack up our things 50 years ago, and she was to stay and let Lord Sesshomaru know. We received a message from them a month later insulting us for leaving Japan."

"That can't be true," she protested. "He believes that he and Akura are the last demons left."

He left the room for several minutes without saying a word and returned a few minutes left with a folded up piece of paper in hand. She timidly took the piece of paper from him and unfolded it. Inside was the strong confident handwriting of Sesshomaru. The words that flowed from the pen were quite stinging to anyone's pride, and what he said about Akura made her stomach want to lurch. The thought had never occurred to her that he was lying to her about his intentions towards Akura, especially after that night they spent together, but the proof on paper was too hard to ignore.

She folded it back up and handed it to him. "I didn't know," she explained to him. Her words were slow in coming as she thought carefully over what she would say next. "I had been told that all of the dog demons were gone besides the two of them, and because they were the only ones left they felt a responsibility to mate together. That was his excuse for why he couldn't make me his mate."

"Is he the father of your child?" Boksano asked her tenderly.

"He is, but he doesn't know I'm pregnant. Akura knows though." She frowned further at the thought of the horrible demon woman lying with her soul mate, but she mentally slapped herself realizing that her soul mate wasn't the person she thought he was. "She threatened to kill my baby if I didn't go on the supply trip here and stay here. I had heard her mention your name, so I thought I would look for you. It seems that you found me first."

"We did. But next time you need to be careful of where you are going." He stood up and moved towards the door but turned around to say, "You can stay with us. Once the baby is born you'll need to go looking for a job so you can get a place of your own down the street. It's more important than ever in your life to be a demon community." He left the room and closed the door behind him.

1111111111111111111111111111

The ship returned hours later than normal, which worried Sesshomaru. He didn't know why Rin wanted to go on the trip. He kept telling himself that she wanted to help and a change of scenery, but deep down he knew something else probably prompted this sudden decision. It was more a sneaking suspicion since it was Akura who had mentioned it to him, but when Rin did go he wasn't as dead set on believing Akura had anything to do as he originally had been.

Through the darkness the ship could be seen approaching slowly. The demons standing on the bough were stern looking. As soon as the boat docked the captain immediately sought out Sesshomaru to talk to him privately. "I'm sorry to bring you this news, but when while we were loading up the ship Rin excused herself stating that she wanted to take a walk. When she didn't return hours later we went looking for her, but we were unable to locate her. She had been acting suspicious all day, so most of the men decided that it was best for us to leave for home assuming that she had always intended to never return with us."

The captain cringed after his statement, which had not escaped Sesshomaru's notice. So this was the reason for Rin's request, he reasoned. Not sure if she had been forced into it or she had decided for herself, he immediately sought out Kagome. Unfortunately he found that Akura had gotten there before he had, and Inuyasha and Akura were fighting. The rage that filled Inuyasha was obvious to Sesshomaru long before he even got to the house.

Sesshomaru looked around wondering where Kagome was since she was always very involved in her mate's fights, but he was unable to see her. A tap on his arm by his 15 year-old niece alerted him to her presence. She looked as if she had been sobbing. "What happened?" he asked sternly. He had not meant to sound so harsh but he was having trouble controlling his emotions at this moment.

"Akura killed my mother," she sobbed out. "Please stop them before Father dies also," she requested of him.

His eyes turned red and he could feel himself transforming into his true form. The pair fighting were so involved in their struggle they were unaware of Sesshomaru until he destroyed Akura in one swipe of his paw. Inuyasha, still enraged by his sorrow, said sarcastically, "I didn't need your help!"

Sesshomaru transformed himself into a ball of energy and left for another part of the island to be alone.


	13. The Return

Five years and four months had passed since that day Rin came to stay with the dog demons. Her daughter, who she fondly named Kagome because of the friend she long missed, was now five years old. Things had been quiet these past five years, and her half-demon child had grown up just as quickly as a human child had. Perhaps that was one of the most unique things about demons that helped them to last longer. They grew up faster but stayed at their physical pique for a much longer time.

Kagome was also very intelligent and curious about everything. Most of the time it bothered her little and she indulged in the child's curiosity, but when Kagome started asking about her father she would often get sad and try to change the subject.

The peace and quiet of the Sunday morning had been interrupted by the arguing in the street in the front of the house Rin had bought only a few months before. Kagome rushed to the window and announced to her mother, "Mama, Daiske and Isamu are fighting with some guy outside."

Rin walked over the to the window and bent over to take a look. Outside was quite a sight as she saw Ginta and Hikaku for the first time in five years. She straightened back up and then ran outside in hopes of stopping the fight. "Stop!" she yelled over and over trying to yell over the shouts. Ginta and Hikaku were the first to stop having recognized the woman in front of them.

When Isamu took a cheap shot Boksano yelled from the porch of his home, "Cease this fighting, all of you. You are going to bring about all the wrong attention. Now get inside before the neighbors call the police." He hobbled back into his house and the four men followed behind him. Rin went back home to get her daughter and bring her over to Boksano's.

Once she got there Ai decided to take Kagome to play with her own daughter, who was only a year younger than Kagome. Rin walked into the middle of Boksano's speech about the importance of keeping quiet profiles. Ginta and Hikaku interrupted the sensei to give their full attention to Rin. They took turns asking her questions without giving her a chance to answer, "Why did you run away?" "How did you know they were here?" "Do you want to come back with us?"

Isamu's outburst cut off the two wolf demons' questions. Rin smiled at them but said not a word because Boksano was clearly interested in questioning the wolf demons. "Excuse me, gentleman, but I would rather know why you are here."

Ginta and Hikaku looked at each other and then sat down again as Ginta explained, "I'm sure Rin's already told you that the immortals had to move to an island in the Pacific because we were discovered in Japan." Boksano nodded his head in acknowledgement. "We travel to port cities along the Asian coast every few months to restock supplies we are unable to produce ourselves. The first trip over five years ago Rin left us. Every time he come back to Hong Kong we always send a small search party to look for her to make sure she is at least still okay at Inuyasha's request."

Hikaku then started talking in place of Ginta, "The last time we were here we did not pick up her scent, but we came across another dog demon in disguise. We went home to inform Lord Sesshomaru. He doesn't show any shock, but Inuyasha said later that Lord Sesshomaru was very shocked to hear that there were still dog demons out there. You see, Akura had assured both of them that the dog demons had all perished in a fight with the panther demons about 20 years prior to the date that she came to Tokyo from Hiroshima. Since the brothers had been in Toyko for over a century they were unaware of what had happened to the dog demon clan."

"But Lord Sesshomaru knew they had moved to Hong Kong," Rin rudely interrupted them. "I've seen the letter."

Ginta looked at her with complete understanding behind her anger without understanding Akura's real personality. "We found out after her death that she was forging documents in Lord Sesshomaru's name without his knowledge. She had even perfected forging his handwriting and signature. It is likely that this so-called letter was not from Lord Sesshomaru but from Akura."

Rin looked rather ashamed for not having faith in the man she loved. "No one knew until after she died," Hikaku explained. "Not even Lord Sesshomaru."

"How did she die?" she asked almost too eagerly. The look on both men's faces was filled with grief. "What happened?" she asked in a rather grave tone.

Ginta sighed before saying, "Lord Sesshomaru killed her because she killed Kagome." His eye contact with her immediately switched to everywhere else in the room.

The room was silent except for a gasp from Rin. No one knew what else to say in response. After giving a minute of silence Boksano asked the wolf demons, "Are you sure that Lord Sesshomaru had no idea of our whereabouts?"

Hikaku assured him, "His half-brother Inuyasha told us that he was not aware. I'm sure you already know that the brothers don't get along with each other, and Inuyasha certainly wouldn't give undue credit in regards to Lord Sesshomaru where credit is not due."

"Then, perhaps, we should also join them. Do you have enough space for 60 or more demons?" Boksano asked them. They were assured by the wolf demons and Rin that there was more than enough room for all of them given the size of the island and the small portion they actually inhabited at the moment. It was then decided that the boat would make the trip back to the island and then return for the dog demon clan within the next couple of weeks.

As they were getting ready to leave Kagome ran up to her mother and hugged her leg as she nervously asked, "Who are they, mama?"

Ginta and Hikaku looked at each other and then at the little girl. From what they could tell, she was a half-dog demon child, but from there they knew very little but assumed that Rin had mated with a dog demon during her time in Hong Kong. "They are old friends of your mother's," Rin said as she bent down to pick up her daughter. She pointed at the demons as she told the girl their names. Both smiled and waved at her but thought it best to be going on their way before too much time slipped past them.

As soon as the wolf demons got home they told Lord Sesshomaru about the dog demons' decision to live with them in their Pacific hide-away. They made sure to also slip in that they would be bringing Rin back home with them. Sesshomaru's heart skipped a beat hearing her name but was crushed when he heard the words from Ginta's lips, "It seems that she's mated with one of the demons. We didn't see a mark, but she has a young daughter with dog ears."

"Thank you," he said with an emotionless voice. At this he turned and left the men for the shelter of his own home. Once inside he allowed his face to show all emotions he had been trying to control for years. His soul mate, his Rin, was mated to another. He knew that she had assumed that he would mate with Akura, but she had said to him that night after he made love to her that she would give herself to no one if she could not have him. Had her words been a lie, or was he really not her soul mate? The tears slipped from his eyes as he sat in the dark room until sleep overtook him.

The boat carrying the 60 plus dog demons arrived on a cool morning. The ground was still fresh from the rain that fell in the earliest hours of the morning. Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were both waiting at the docks for the boat to arrive. Boksano was the first off of the boat, so Sesshomaru greeted him first. The both of them walked to Sesshomaru house to talk in his office.

Boksano was careful not to mention anything about Rin and her daughter figuring that it was her place to tell him the news, and he was glad that Sesshomaru was professional and kept it strictly to how to help the clan get settled in with the settlement. After their meeting Sesshomaru dared not go outside. The last thing he wanted to was to run into Rin.

Rin was one of the last people off of the boat. She had been hoping that Sesshomaru would be waiting for her since he was now free to be with her now that Akura was dead and there were more dog demons, but she was sadly disappointed to see only Inuyasha. Not that Inuyasha wasn't worth the attention, and indeed she did want to give him her condolences however late they were, but now more than anything she wanted to see Sesshomaru. She also wanted to introduce him to his daughter. Had't the wolf demons told him about her daughter?

Inuyasha walked up to here in hopes of helping her carry her bags and then noticed a young child, around five-years-old, following her. The child clearly belonged to Rin since she had most of Rin's features, but she was a half-demon. A dog half-demon to be exact. She had dog ears perched atop her head just like his, and her eyes were a wonderful golden color that was the same as his and Sesshomaru's. What tipped him off that this child also belonged to Sesshomaru was the crimson colored crescent moon on her forehead like Sesshomaru.

He stopped in his tracks and stared at the child as the child stared back at him. "Are you related to me?" she asked him. "Are you a half-demon too?"

Inuyasha looked at Rin in puzzlement. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "She's really smart for her age." She put the two suitcases she had been carrying down and started introducing them, "Inuyasha, this is…"

Before she could finish her sentence he finished for her, "my niece. What is her name?" His eyes were once again fixated on the child.

"I named her Kagome, after her aunt." She watched his face drop in remembrance of his late wife. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cause her death."

"She knew you were pregnant with…"

"She did."

Kagome slowly approached Inuyasha and held her hands out to him in a gesture that meant that she wanted him to pick her up, so he granted her request. She reached up for his ears but he instead started stroking hers and she started purring. When she opened her eyes again he said to her, "Well, kid, I'm your uncle. You can call me Uncle Inuyasha. If you're really good, you can come over some time and play with your cousin Sango. She only three years older than you."

"Do you know my daddy?" she asked him innocently.

"I do," he told her. "He's my half-brother."

She turned her head to look at Rin and asked her, "Mama, what's a half-brother?"

Rin took her daughter from Inuyasha and he went up to the men unloading the boat and took her remaining bags while she explained to Kagome, "They had the same father, but they had different mothers. That's why they're called 'half-brothers'."

She put Kagome back on the ground and picked up the two suitcases again and followed after Inuyasha. "I'm going to put you up at Sesshomaru's. I don't know why the bastard isn't here, but he's done nothing but mope around here since you left."

"Has he really?" she asked him hopefully.

"Well, he hasn't said it, but I'm sure he does. He's always going to be happy to hear that he has a daughter." He opened the door to the mansion but was stopped abruptly. "What's the big deal?" he asked his brother he had slammed the door in his face.

"You are not allowed here," the voice said on the other side of the door.

"I was just moving Rin in here," Inuyasha explained through the door.

"She can live with her mate." The words sounded venomous.

"What makes you think I have a mate?" she called out to him, but not a word was said. Inuyasha tried to open the door but found it locked. Rin's heart fell to her feet. Had she pushed him away too much that he now assumed that she had taken another? How could she even get him to listen to her?

"You're staying at my house until I get the bastard to listen to reason," Inuyasha yelled out loud so that Sesshomaru could hear it through the door. They picked up her suitcases and walked to his house only a few buildings away.

Once inside Rin saw his children remaining at home. They had grown so much since she had last seen them, but they very much still remembered her. As Rin got established again at her old job, which Shippo was all to happy to give back to her, Inuyasha's teenage children helped Kagome get to school and with her homework after.


	14. The End

As was his usual custom, Inuyasha got up from his light sleep with the sunrise at 6 A.M. and started cooking breakfast for everyone in the household. Normally Rin would be up in 15 minutes to get ready for work herself, but at 6:15 he heard the sound so something falling to the floor. He took the eggs off of the stove and rushed up the stairs to the room that Rin shared with her daughter and his teenage daughter but ran into his daughter before he could get there. "Rin collapsed!" she screamed out as she turned around and ran back to the room.

It looked as if Kimiko had helped her back into bed, and Kagome was quite hysterical. Inuyasha picked up Kagome and put her into Kimiko's arms commanding her, "Go get her ready and take her somewhere else." He turned back to Rin who looked ghostly white. Only once before had he ever seen her like this, and that was when she had died in the Feudal Era. "I'm going to get Sesshomaru."

Her weak voice rasped out, "No." He turned around and glared at her. "He won't come."

"He's going to make you his mate and save you. It's the least thing he can do for you and for me. He owes both of us big time," he said in his haughty tone before jumping out the open window and running at full speed to Sesshomaru's house. Not even bothering to knock or wait he kicked in the doors and went in search of his older half-brother.

Sesshomaru was sitting in his study downstairs near the door was annoyed at his brother's rude intrusion. Taking Tokijin off of the display on the wall he unsheathed it and pointed it at Inuyasha's face as soon as Inuyasha opened the study doors. "Get out. You have no business here."

Inuyasha forgot the Tetseiga at home so he stayed at the end of the sword as he barked out, "You need to get your ass down to my house and make Rin your mate."

"This is none of your concern," he told his younger brother as he sheathed Tokijin again and hung it on the wall.

"Like hell it's none of my business!" Inuyasha grunt. "She's living at my house right now because you won't talk to her. And now she's dying in my house because you won't take her as your mate." He noticed a sudden falter in Sesshomaru's normally stoic expression that was gone in the blink of an eye. "If you don't make her your mate by the end of the day she's going to die again from the same disease as last time."

"Is she not mated already?" Sesshomaru asked in an icy tone. "She does have a child. Has he not mated with her yet?"

"If she's dying she's obviously not mated. And if you'd take a look at the child you'd realize who the father was."

Sesshomaru continued to stare at the wall ahead of him instead of his brother. Did his brother not realize that he was hurting also knowing that the woman he had thought loved him had climbed into bed with someone else. Since she was not one to spite him, it was obvious to him that this other male had made her an offer to produce a family with her since he could not. Still, the thought of her laying there dying when he could save her life when the other male couldn't or wouldn't. Who would also care for the child when Rin was no longer there to do so and the father obviously wouldn't take responsibility after promising her that he would.

How had he been so oblivious to her pain? Sure, he was hurting from her betrayal, but he had turned her down for his responsibilities. And then some other male had made a promise to provide for her and didn't leaving her alone in the world with a child. How long had she been raising this child on her own?

After a couple of minutes of silence Inuyasha grew tired of Sesshomaru's silent thinking and interrupted him by snidely saying, "Do you not realize that she's dying, meaning that we don't have long to think this over?"

In a split second Sesshomaru was answering him with, "Go get the priest. I shall meet you at your home." Inuyasha took not a moment to think about his duties and was running in the direction of the shrine. Sesshomaru's steps were labored as he took the normally short journey to Inuyasha's house that seemed to stretch longer with every step. If she still loved him, he owed her nothing less than to save her life and make her his mate. He would even take care of her child as if she were his.

When he finally got to the home he found it completely empty. It seemed as if his niece and nephews had cleared out the place as quickly as they could because the room Rin was in was a complete mess along with the room across the hallway from her. She lay there completely still except for the shallow breathing. It seemed that she had fallen ill to the same disease that had once claimed her before. Before he could save her from a life of disease by taking her as his mate.

He sat down on the edge of the bed facing her. She made no motion that she had been disturbed. Taking her hand in his he noticed how cold and clammy it had become. His moments of silence were interrupted by the sound of others entering the house. Inuyasha had not only fetched the monk but also brought Boksano as the second witness to the event.

Slowly Sesshomaru brought Rin out of her sleep and she weakly stared at him as if begging him to end the misery she was currently in. "Rin, I need you to do as I say," the priest instructed her as she noticed him for the first time. She gave just the slightest nod showing her acceptance so he conducted the service there as she lay in the bed.

At the end of such a ceremony the mate was required to bite his mate on the neck to mark her as his intended. As he bit into her neck he felt her go limp in his arms as she stopped breathing. Sesshomaru released her and looked at her wondering if she had died before he was able to fully finish. He cursed himself mentally for taking too long to do this and blamed himself for her death. Inuyasha's voice cut through the silence of the room as he comforted his half-brother by saying, "Kagome did the same when I marked her. Give it a minute and she'll start breathing again as she starts to grow pink."

Sure enough only half a minute later she drew in a deep breath and began to glow, only she did not wake up from the deep sleep she had fallen into. Sesshomaru knew not how long he held her there in his arms waiting for her to wake up. For once in his life he was void of all thought but only felt the shame of waiting too long to allow things to get this far. If only he had followed his heart and taken her the moment she remembered who she was, but instead he hurt her and almost caused her death.

Rin woke up again expecting to feel the last of her life slipping away but instead felt as healthy as she ever had. The only thing she could feel was the warmth and comfort of a body holding her against itself. Her eyes opened up to look upon the white kimono with red polygonic patterns she all too familiar with. "Sesshomaru-sama," she squeaked out.

"Yes," he said. His voice was unsteady. She pulled back from him slightly to look into his now tear filled eyes. Only once before in her soul's lifetime had she ever seen the mighty Sesshomaru crying.

She reached up her right hand to caress his cheek and wipe the tears away. "What happened to me?"

"I made you my mate," he answered her. "I could not let you die when I could save you."

"I thought you weren't talking to me," she said to him.

"I was wrong. I hated you for taking another into your bed, but I should not have judged you since I almost took Akura into mine." He kissed her cheek lightly and then nuzzled it as if needing assurance that she would accept this apology.

She instead protested, "I never took another into my bed." He stopped what he was doing and held still. Downstairs he could hear the sound of the children entering the house and a small child running up the stairs. "I want you to meet Kagome before you say anything more."

At that moment the door flew open and the child ran to her mother's side. Sesshomaru looked down at his daughter for the first time. Their golden eyes locked and then he noticed the pink crescent moon on her forehead, the mark of his family. "Are you my dad?" she asked him fully anticipating his answer to finally affirm that she had finally found the father she had been anticipating to meet for the past month.

"I am," he answered her simply as he picked her up and put her between himself and Rin. "Do you want to go home now?" he asked the both of them. Rin nodded in agreement as Kagome cheered.

Five hundred and fifteen years later Rin was sent on yet another re-supply trip, but this time they would be returning back to Japan for the first time in one hundred years. As they docked upon returning home Rin ran down to her mate and gave him a peck on the cheek before turning to Inuyasha and announcing to him that she had brought someone back with her. He looked up at the ship to see Kagome standing there.

She ran down to him and threw her arms around him and kissed her passionately. Only a couple of days before she was a priestess at the shrine where Rin's first body laid, and today she had all of her memories back and was in her mate's arms again. While Inuyasha was normally not one to show joyful emotions, but not to the extent Sesshomaru hid his emotions, today he didn't care who saw the joy he had in finding his soul mate again. That night they were mated and already trying for more children as if no time had passed by.

Rin had prided herself on her great find, and Sesshomaru had to admit that he was grateful that she had brought Kagome back into Inuyasha's life. He had been grateful to Kagome when she had brought Rin back into his life, and although he never admitted it to her, she knew deep down he was grateful.

Sesshomaru sat in the bed watching the bathroom door as Rin was getting ready for bed. As he sat he thought about how grateful he was to both Kagome for her bringing Rin back into his life, but also to Inuyasha for talking sense back into him. His life would have seemed so completely worthless if he had not taken Rin as his mate, and now he had 52 children and 120 grandchildren. Only a millennium ago he would have been ashamed of taking a human as a mate and producing half-demon children with them, but with Rin at his side he felt that he was not worthy of being her mate and being the father of her children. She was ten times the mate and the parent he was, and he never allowed her to think she was anything less.

The door to the bathroom door opened revealing Rin in a rather slinky piece of lingerie. His eyes glazed over in lust at the mere sight of her. Tonight they would forget about the fight they had before she left. She knew he was concerned about her being far from his protection, especially when she was in her second trimester. But tonight he was just glad to have her home and safe and in his arms again. Tonight was a night to celebrate finding one's love again after so long a time apart.

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I apologize for how bad the story ended up. I guess I just left it go too long. Next time I'll write the whole thing out before I post a story again.


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